Republicans like Lindsay Graham are threatening not to raise it, even though they acknowledge the financial devastation it’ll cause, a threat top leaders are more than willing to back up.
Now, while they’d like to get rid of Big Government, I doubt they really want to crash the American economy; they just want to use the threat to get what they want. I’m not even sure they mind that their threats are themselves damaging; I think they’re counting on it to make SURE their demands are met. However, having talked all this up, will the rank and file (and the newer Tea Party oriented members of their own party) let them “give in,” especially since there are a few who actually want to renege on the debt? How far will the talks get this time? Who’ll blink first? Will it matter, if it tells the world that the nation can’t be trusted with debt?