I think GOPe is hoping he'll do it. They want the debt limit raised and they fear to raise it themselves. They don't want to take responsibility for raising it, and they don't have a clue what to do if we don't raise it and they don't want whatever political fallout comes from not raising it.
So the best and easiest answer is for Obama to raise it. Then they get to huff and puff and caterwaul cost free.
Its only tea party conservatives that would consider refusing to raise the limit, and actually and seriously consider steps to rein in the size of government in order to fit it within our actual tax income.
But, then, they're wacko-birds.
Remember these words in one of our founding documents:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation....
He has refused his Assent to Laws (or to modify laws), the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Folks, it is time.
So the best and easiest answer is for Obama to raise it. Then they get to huff and puff and caterwaul cost free.
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From another perspective, what if the stalemate in budget talks continues and Obama does NOT raise the debt ceiling ?
It would be economic collapse and not just a government shut down. That might be what Obama is hoping for as we know his intentions.