Robert Costa of National Review says:
According to several [House Republicans], there is a growing consensus, even among conservatives, to pass a six-week extension [of the debt limit]. “It’ll be for six weeks,” predicts a leadership aide. “People want to get back to spending cuts and Obamacare, and they know that any concessions will come from extended talks, so we’re moving in that direction.”
[...] Boehner, though, knows the right’s enthusiasm for a short-term extension seems to vary by the hour, so there is also talk of refunding the government for six weeks, along with a debt-ceiling extension, in order to win Democratic support. But, for now, nothing is finalized, and the leadership is treading carefully. “We’ll talk about it more today at conference, see where things go,” says the House GOP veteran. “If the president can tell Democrats to back this, and we can keep our group united, then we’ll be able to give ourselves a breather.”
There are a number of different versions of this story from various media outlets (including
National Journal,
Washington Post, the conservative
Washington Examiner,
CNN,
Politico,
ABC, and
Wall Street Journal), but the thread tying them together is the same: House Speaker John Boehner does not want to be remembered as the guy who forced the United States to default on its obligations for the first time in American history.
Actually, that might be giving Boehner too much credit—he might just want to preserve his earning potential on K Street after he steps down as Speaker of the House. But whatever his motive, the fact that Boehner is already talking about turning to Democrats for support in raising the debt limit is a sign that he's serious about avoiding default.
Talking about being willing to rely on Democratic support to avoid default is a major change from Boehner's approach to the government shutdown, but Boehner isn't suddenly trying to move to the left. Instead, he's trying to use Democrats as leverage to force his right-flank to back down on the debt limit and focus their attention on continuing to use the government shutdown to dismantle Obamacare.
According to Costa, Boehner's tactic appears to be working, with House conservatives moving towards supporting a six week debt limit suspension. Their spin:
It's (slowly) becoming a win-win consensus for both camps; right flank can say it's still fighting for delay on CR, ldrshp stops default
— @robertcostaNRO
If Boehner's plan works, we'd avoid default (at least for a few weeks), but the government shutdown would continue—and Ted Cruz's dream of ending Obamacare through a government shutdown would live on (at least in the conservative imagination). That might avoid the disaster of default, but it would still be bad for the country—and it would also be politically bad for Republicans, even though they seem to be enjoying their party for the time being.
But it's worth remembering that this isn't the first time we've seen a last-minute push by Boehnerland to raise the debt limit by relying on conservatives, however. Each time, it's failed, and each time Boehner ended up relying on Democrats to do his job. So at this point, it seems like the only thing we can be reasonably sure of is that Boehner wants to cave on the debt limit. It's just not clear if or when he'll figure out how to do it.
7:41 AM PT: Plan B, part 33?
worrisome for leadership: hearing the response to 6-week plan is near silence
— @robertcostaNRO