U.S. faces debt ceiling crash at stroke of midnight

Cutter to King: This is a fool's errand

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Republican representative hopes Speaker Boehner will fast-track possible Senate deal
• Spokesmen: Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell resume talks to end the standoff
• The GOP-led House's vote to end shutdown, raise debt ceiling called off
• Obama says House Speaker Boehner can't control his own caucus

(CNN) -- The country crashes into the debt ceiling at midnight, and there is no deal yet in Washington.

The deal-making resumes Wednesday, and there is hope, as the government slides into day 16 of the shutdown.

Legislators dropped hints on their way home Tuesday that Senate leaders will present a deal to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the partially shuttered government.

And a Republican member of the House of Representatives is holding out hope that Speaker John Boehner could put it on a fast track.

After adjourning the Senate for the night around 10 p.m. Tuesday, majority leader Sen. Harry Reid sounded upbeat. "We're in good shape," the Nevada Democrat said.

Senate staffers burned midnight oil to draft a framework bill, and a spokesman for Reid said he and his counterpart, minority leader, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, "are optimistic that an agreement is within reach."

The Senate isn't in session until noon Wednesday, but it's possible that statements may go out in the morning in an effort to assure the markets of progress.

Slow process

Even so, it could take a day or two more for a deal to make it through the legislative process, longer than it will take for the debt ceiling to come grinding down.

Manchin: A deal can happen in Senate

Boehner: Idea of default is wrong

If a new bill hits walls, as in the past, it could take even longer, pushing the U.S. into default.

The prospect of the U.S. government not meeting its debt obligations has economists around the world prophesying dire consequences. Mutual funds, which are not allowed to hold defaulted securities, may have to dump masses of U.S. Treasuries.

Ratings agency Fitch fired a warning shot Tuesday that it may downgrade the country's AAA credit rating to AA+ over the political brinksmanship and bickering in Washington that has brought the government to this point.

That could help raise interest rates on U.S. debt, putting the country deeper into the red.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ following the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. Moody's still has the U.S. rated AAA.

Fast track

Boehner could put a Senate deal on a fast track, a Republican colleague told CNN's Jake Tapper. But he'd have to make a bold political move to do so.

"I believe that John Boehner will likely be in a position, where he will have to essentially pass the bill that is negotiated between Senators McConnell and Reid," said Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.

Then Boehner could shoot it over to the Senate for its quick approval, and it could then lateral it to President Obama to sign.

Military cemeteries closed around world

Wounded Warrior Project steps in

But Boehner would probably have to break a Republican tradition, the Hastert Rule, to do that.

The informal tenet, named after former Speaker Dennis Hastert, says that the House Speaker does not introduce legislation, unless a majority of Republicans say they will vote for it first.

It has served to keep proposals off the floor, even if they have the prospect of passing via the votes of Democrats combined with those of some moderate Republicans.

House Republicans have expected Boehner to uphold the rule, which asserts the party's interests in the chamber, and he has pledged to do so.

A break from tradition

Dent hopes Boehner will make an exception and break the Hastert Rule to save the United States from a debt default, and he fears the Speaker will have to, if he wants the necessary legislation to pass.

Although many of his House Republican colleagues support the potential Senate deal, some would vote against it for political reasons, Dent said.

"There will be fewer Republican members voting for the bill than who actually support it," Dent told Tappert on the Capitol Hill lawn. "We're going to be seeing a lot of what I would call 'hope yes, vote no.'"

That would leave it up to the Democrats to pass it along with a contingency of Republicans like himself, provided Boehner puts it to a vote.

If he does, Dent will vote in favor of it alongside many House Democrats, and he thinks enough of his moderate Republican colleagues will join him to "put it over the top."

"The question is how many Republicans? Will it be closer to 20 or 75," Dent said. "I don't know. I hope I'm wrong."

Dent says he feels that it is his basic duty to fund the government and keep it able to pay its debts. He believes that the majority of House Republicans feel the same way.

"The challenge is (that) there are two to three dozen members of the House Republican caucus that don't share that," he said. "It only takes two or three dozen to obstruct the will of the majority.