In less than a month, the federal government will approach and then smash through the debt limit, precipitating a crisis over a House G.O.P. debt ceiling bill that the White House has vowed to veto. Democrats are holding firm on the party line that they won’t negotiate on what they say should be a “clean” hike; Republicans, who hold the kill switch to the U.S. bond market, are under greater pressure to splinter as the final deadline nears. Nevertheless, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who controls a tiny five-seat majority in the House, has somehow kept his conference together, advancing a draconian budget proposal with no public pushback from his frenemies in the Senate.