Are half of House Republicans really willing to let the U.S. default?

Economic suicide is a real option for scores of lawmakers, says Politico

House Speaker John Boehner "assumes he can ultimately talk members out of default," reports Politico. But you never know...
(Image credit: Pete Marovich/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

Unless Congress acts, the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bills in late February or March — at which point, economic chaos would (at least theoretically) break loose. And yet, more than half of Republicans in the House are willing to allow such a catastrophe as a way of forcing President Obama to agree to steep spending cuts, according to Politico:

Republican leadership officials, in a series of private meetings and conversations this past week, warned that the White House, much less the broader public, doesn't understand how hard it will be to talk restive conservatives off the fiscal ledge. To the vast majority of House Republicans, it is far riskier long term to pile up new debt than it is to test the market and economic reaction of default or closing down the government…

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.