John Boehner apparently will let the debt ceiling rise, even if he has to rely on Democratic votes to do it. This is both good news and bad news.
It's good news because we won't have a global financial panic in two weeks time. Boehner apparently got Wall Street's message loud and clear: If you make the United States government default on its debts, you take responsibility for a worldwide economic catastrophe.
But the flipside of Boehner's back-off is that there's less pressure on House Republicans to end the government shut-down. The Tea Party wing of the party, having lost what they believed was the most potent weapon in their arsenal, will likely compensate by seeking to roll the shut-down on-and on, and on. Boehner, having made a concession to reality by not forcing a governmental default, will have to go along with a prolonged shut-down. Unless there are 18 center-right Republican House members willing to threaten bolting the GOP's ranks if Boehner doesn't permit a vote on a clean continuing resolution, it's hard to see how the shut-down will end.
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