David Wessel has talked to insiders who say the situation over the debt ceiling in Washington is even worse than it looks. He compares Speaker of the House John Boehner to a union boss negotiating with management without the full support of rank and file members. Some Republicans in Congress are so mistrustful of the negotiations with the Obama Administration that they believe either the real deadline for default is August 10th and not August 2nd or that the whole issue was fabricated by Obama to begin with.
My take: The issue is real and if the debt ceiling is not increased, the US will slip into a double dip recession in which unemployment will rise higher and stocks will sink lower than in 2009. Voters now see this as a predominately political issue. The intransigence has cost everyone credibility as parties who are only interested in the deficit, especially the Republicans as I said it would. But it has cost Obama too. Cantor and Boehner must be aware of this. It is unclear how knowing that a political toll has already been taken will influence their negotiating strategies.
I will be on BBC World News at 215ET to discuss this issue.