First Read: “Twenty-four hours ago, it looked like Congress was headed toward a temporary resolution. Today, things look bleaker, and it puts Boehner in his box. Right now, the government is one step closer to a shutdown, thanks, in part, to Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Any hope Republicans had to at least share the blame with President Obama and Democrats was pretty much wiped away when Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Cruz had a fight on the Senate floor. There has been talk that Boehner has appeared to be trying to move conservatives to focus on the debt ceiling. And they are going to proceed with that, but they haven’t gotten off of the shutdown talk yet. And yesterday Boehner tried to show some vigor in when talking about Obama.”

“But it is also important to note that Boehner hasn’t passed judgment on what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing. We’re all, of course, going to be focused on what’s been SAID, but sometimes we need to also focus on what HASN’T been said. Boehner is keeping every option open to him. The odd thing about this shutdown is it is pretty clear the leaders don’t want it, but they have to figure out what the path is. Boehner can easily avert the shutdown, but would have to sacrifice maybe 50 Republican votes to do it, and he’s not necessarily willing to do that yet.”

Charlie Cook: “In the upcoming fiscal showdowns over the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling, Republicans are greatly exposed and could come out of this badly damaged. But as we saw in 2011, in a fight like this one, everyone can end up looking bad. In fact, the way it is shaping up, that’s a pretty decent bet.”

Rick Klein: “These are dangerous political times for all involved. Republicans are currently convincing themselves that they may be better suited to fight things out over the debt ceiling instead of a government shutdown. (Raising the stakes after drawing a bad hand?) The White House is currently convincing itself that the only thing to be sure of is that Republicans will fold, not once but twice. (Won’t there be blame enough to go around if either of the bad things on the horizon happen?) This crisis has been marked by a surprising lack of leadership – of caution, half-steps, missteps, and sometimes no steps at all. It’s a leadership moment for somebody, maybe from an unexpected corner, to navigate these next few months without everybody going bust.”

Bill Clinton told ABC News that parts of the House GOP proposal to raise the debt ceiling are “chilling” and “almost spiteful” in the way that it would impact low-income Americans.

Said Clinton: “If I were the president, I wouldn’t negotiate over these draconian cuts that are going to take food off the table of low-income working people, while they leave all the agricultural subsidies in for high-income farmers and everything else. I just think it’s — it’s chilling to me.”

Huffington Post: “Asked bluntly if using the limit for leverage risked blowing up the economy, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) paused for a second and then offered a drawn-out ‘Yes’ that suggested the answer was obvious.”

Said Farenthold: “That’s why we’re paid the big bucks — to figure these problems out.”

Jonathan Chait looks at the Republican list of demands to raise the debt ceiling and concludes, “It’s Mitt Romney’s 2012 economic plan. Almost word for word, in fact.”

“The fact that a major party could even propose anything like this is a display of astonishing contempt for democratic norms. Republicans ran on this plan and lost by 5 million votes. They also lost the Senate and received a million fewer votes in the House but held control owing to favorable district lines. Is there an example in American history of a losing party issuing threats to force the majority party to implement its rejected agenda?”

Speaker John Boehner signaled that the House “would not simply vote on the version of the continuing resolution the Senate sends back, running up against a timeline that could suggest at least a temporary government shutdown,” Roll Call reports.

“While the Senate has accelerated its pace on the CR, there will be little time before Sept. 30 for that chamber to send its version of the CR back to the House, have the House send a revised version to the Senate, and then have the CR make its way through the Senate chamber — and that would assume the Senate accepts what the House sends them.”

Asked if he expected the government to shut down, Boehner said, “No, I do not. No, I do not expect that to happen.”