House Majority Leader Eric Cantor declared during the GOP's recent retreat that his party was ready to surrender their debt ceiling hostage, but today we learned that the vote to do so will take place this week.
Jan 21 (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a vote on Wednesday on a nearly four-month extension of U.S. borrowing capacity, but the bill does not specify a dollar amount.
Legislative language released by the House Rules Committee on Monday said the bill aims "to ensure complete and timely payment of the obligations of the United States Government until May, 19, 2013."
The Republicans will have no more leverage in May -- perhaps even less so -- than they do now, so I see no reason to assume their next attempt to extort a ransom of austerity will be any more successful.
And in this case, the president told the Republicans they had no choice but to raise the debt ceiling, and they said okay. Just like that.