House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio) said Sunday there would be substantial opposition in the House GOP to a contingency plan to raise the debt limit to avoid default.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unveiled a framework last week that would raise the debt ceiling three times before the 2012 elections while putting the burden on Democrats and President Barack Obama.

“The McConnell plan doesn’t have 218 Republican votes — no way,” Jordan, the head of the conservative wing of his caucus, told “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s all kinds of conservatives in the Republican Study Committee and in the House Conference who will not support” it.

However, he conceded that the faction’s votes may not be necessary.

“Who knows if there’s a combination of Republicans and Democrats who will support it?” Jordan said when pushed on whether he thought the McConnell plan would pass.

In the past week, the only bipartisan agreement to emerge from Washington is a public dissatisfaction with the McConnell plan, even as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle tinker with it behind closed doors to create a tenable fallback plan in case Congress fails to reach a bigger deal by the Aug. 2 deadline.

With only 16 days left before the Treasury’s stated deadline to extend the nation’s borrowing capacity, it might be Congress’s only choice.

“I’m not a fan of the McConnell deal,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a political answer, not a real answer, to the problem.

“I’m working very hard so that’s not our only choice — but I will say this, we cannot default on our debt. … We know what a catastrophe that would be,” the Maryland Democrat said.