Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and their allies are instead privately urging rank and file to forgo a clash over government funding — and a possible government shutdown — and instead dig in against Obama and the Democratic Senate when the debt ceiling needs to be lifted sometime next month.

Boehner admitted to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a private session last week that he is not even sure he has the votes to pass a debt ceiling package with entitlement cuts. He also admitted that passing a CR will be a heavy lift. Boehner also has assured Wall Street and K Street that he will not allow the U.S. government to default on its debt — effectively removing some of his leverage in the battle.

Politico reports that House Republican leadership have settled on their strategy for talking Republicans out of forcing a government shutdown over Obamacare:So Boehner and crew are telling their flock to avoid a shutdown battle because the debt limit is where the real battle should be fought. Of course, that's precisely the opposite of what Boehner said just before the GOP raised the white flag on the debt limit when it came last spring. And it's also the opposite of what he's saying in private:It's clear to anyone paying attention that Boehner has two options on both the government shutdown and the potential for federal default: He can force a crisis by insisting on trying to pass something with nothing but Republican votes, or he can avoid a crisis (and the resulting political disaster for the GOP) by agreeing to pass a bill with votes from Democrats and not-completely-crazy Republicans.

All indications are that he's ultimately going to pursue the second path. The only question is how much longer he's going to continue the charade of pretending there's a chance that he won't. Given that government funding runs out in 14 days, we won't have to wait much longer to find out.