There's good news for everyone who would rather not witness another financial apocalypse -- Speaker of the House John Boehner will reportedly bring a clean debt ceiling bill up for a vote before he officially resigns from office.
Boehner is in discussions with Senate leadership and the White House over a budget package that would include raising the debt ceiling, but House GOP aides do not expect the talks to produce an agreement. GOP leadership aides have discussed passing a standalone debt limit bill should the talks break down. Many senior Republican aides and lawmakers see a "clean" debt limit bill as the only real option.
Taken into context with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's demand for Social Security and Medicare cuts, it appears the congressional Republican leadership strategy is to publicly pretend that they're willing to hold the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for a ransom while making plans to cave in private. Same as it ever was.
This will undoubtedly piss off the Flying Monkey Caucus and several Republican presidential candidates who would much rather see the market crash than go another day without cutting Social Security or Medicare.
With all of this said, there's no guarantee Boehner will have enough votes to pass a clean bill. Boehner can count on every single Democrat in the House to vote for a clean bill but, given the House GOP's large majority, he will require at least 30 Republican votes to pass a clean bill.
It remains to be seen if there are enough Republicans in Congress who aren't interested in crashing the global economy.
If Speaker Boehner wants to do the responsible thing, he'll push a bill to raise the debt ceiling for at least the next two years if not permanently.