Will the debt ceiling get raised in time to avoid a default?

After the United States Senate voted to effectively kill House Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling legislation – a gimmicky proposal that tied increases in the debt ceiling to Congress sending the states a balanced budget amendment – the U.S. Senate is left to pick up the pieces of Boehner’s debacle and try to fashion some sort of debt ceiling compromise that Boehner will be able to find the votes to pass in the House.

Negotiations are underway in the U.S. Senate on some a compromise agreement between Democrats and Republicans, but with Tuesday’s debt ceiling increase deadline looming, can a deal be reached before our nation defaults on its debt?

Without a compromise in place by Tuesday, Obama Administration officials have said the Treasury will run out of funds to pay all the nation’s bills, with the subsequent default having the potential to be catastrophic to the U.S. economy by causing interest rates to rise and financial markets to sink. The resulting “ripple effect” of the U.S. defaulting on its debt could also result in a worldwide economic downturn.

So what do you think – will Republicans in Congress do the right thing and finally stop holding a debt ceiling increase hostage?