In his weekly press availability at the Capitol on Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer cautioned House Speaker John Boehner that his designs on the debt ceiling are based on a false belief that he can credibly take the country's creditworthiness hostage. 

"First of all, I again would urge the Speaker not to use the debt limit to the detriment of the creditworthiness of the United States of America as a leverage point," Hoyer said. "It is not a leverage point. It is not real. It is a phony political debate. We have incurred debt and the United States will meet its obligations, pure and simple.... No one believes -- not Mitch McConnell, not John Boehner, not Eric Cantor, because I've talked to all of them -- certainly none of us believe that America defaulting on its debt makes sense."