Jon Chait at The New Republic speculates that this debt ceiling brouhaha and the GOP's penchant for all-or-nothing "negotiating" might have a much more optimal result than anyone currently is willing to even discuss:
If Obama wins reelection, he can refuse to extend any tax cuts on income over $250,000. That will prompt Republicans to refuse to extend tax cuts on any income under $250,000 (as they signaled last December, and in keeping with their longstanding priorities, which deem the middle class tax cuts mere sweetener to get the tax cuts for the rich they really want.) Then the tax cuts expire while Obama blames Republicans for holding the (popular) universal tax cuts hostage to the (unpopular) tax cuts that only benefit the rich.
Assuming the economy has limped into some sort of recovery track by 2013, allowing an automatic default to Clinton-era tax rates would be the simplest path in returning to sane fiscal policy.
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