I see three ‘dug in’ groups:

There are those pledged never to cut Social Security benefits or eligibility. I personally heard Senator Blumethal pledge this while running for office. And Barney Frank was on saying much he same thing.

There are those pledged to never increase taxes.

There are those who believe it’s in the best interest of out economy to ‘cut off it’s credit card’ and, like a drug addict, go ‘cold turkey’ to a balanced budget. They believe that govt is the problem, and that getting govt ‘out of the way’ it will make room for the private sector to flourish. In other words this third group believes they are doing right by America by voting against any increase in the debt ceiling.

This makes getting any bill to the President to sign highly problematic.

And in this case, doing nothing is the worst case scenario.