To think

If John McCain was President, the debt limit would have been doubled by now, mostly because he'd a ranted and raved and caved in whatever Speaker John Boehner demanded every time.
This whole situation reminds me a great deal to the horrific strain of politics that lead up Abraham Lincoln's inaugural in 1861. In a bid to "Save the Union", all sorts of faux constitutional amendments to guarantee slavery's survival in the south were proposed and or bids to revive the Missouri compromise were floated.
Lincoln, thank ghod would have nothing to do with any of it. He said the Union would not be dissolved nor would slavery be extended any further into the territories, wherein it existed and indeed flourished, Lincoln could do nothing and intended to do nothing.
Those simple and logical premises were anathema to the John Boehner's of his day and thus came the Civil War.
Thusly, the President will prosper only if he sticks to his guns, for truly he is faced with conservative opposition that has grown fat and diabetic on a too sweet diet of mythology, the myth of christian politics, the myth of rugged individualism, the myth of small government and the myth of grievance. All of which have gone bust these last four or so years, but unwilling to give up on the Life of Dreams, Boehner et al, have added a fifth myth, the myth of annihilation...if they can't win then no one can.
So given that I think the reporters can all go home in Washington DC, they are waiting for the Speaker to announce a GOP plan to raise the debt limit, but truly all he and his minions are working on is a way to make the rubble jump.
At least until their Rangers and top donors start looking at the Nikkei Index and the European Stock Exchanges, then maybe some of their screaming will get thru to the Speaker.