observed Sunday.

And the White House has presented the public with the same proposal to raise the debt ceiling as past administrations.

"Our very strong view is that the debt limit should be passed as a clean, standalone bill," Office of Management and Budget director Jack Lew told Bloomberg TV in April.

"It has always been a straight up or down vote," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said Thursday. "The new leadership in the House has decided that they want to add some budget cuts or other considerations to this vote, because that is their preference, and they are the leadership, so we are in this quagmire."

"The problem here is that there are two issues tied together that shouldn’t be," Christopher opined. "If Republicans want to see a 'plan' to avoid a default, here it is: raise the goddam debt ceiling. Is that specific enough?"