Now that we have seen the disastrous effects of the debt ceiling "compromise", one has to wonder if Obama and the country would not have been better off to follow the advice of former President Bill Clinton in raising the debt ceiling under the provisions of the 14th Amendment.
He would have been following in the footsteps of one of our great Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, if he had.   TR boldly and decisively acted where others had waited for Congress to debate
each move.
He took the view that the President as a "steward of the people" should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution." I did not usurp power," he wrote, "but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power."
Calling the actions of Congress irresponsible, reckless and stupid, MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan went on a rant the likes of which I have never heard on the air in which he evoked Teddy Roosevelt's attitude that it was better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.  
He stated that he wanted our President to go to the American people telling them that our Congress is bought and that he no longer was going to listen to them.
Here's just a little of the rant:
I would like him to go to the people of the United States of America and say, “People of the United States of America, your Congress is bought, your Congress is incapable of making legislation on healthcare, banking, trade, or taxes because if they do it, they will lose their political funding and they won’t do it. But I’m the President of the United States, and I won’t have a country that is run by a bought Congress. So I’m not going to work with a bought Congress and try to be Mr. Big Guy ... I’m going to abandon the bought Congress like Teddy Roosevelt did, and I’m going to go to the people of the United States get rid of the bought Congress." ... Until a President says that’s the problem and says he’s going to fix it, there is no policy that I can possibly see no matter how brilliant your idea may be or your idea or my idea or her idea or your idea at home, is that idea will not happen as long as there’s a capacity to basically fire a politician who disagrees with me by taking funding away from him. Is that a fair assessment?
Here's the link to watch the actual rant; believe me, it's worth it.  He has much more to say about what the President could do to solve this problem without a bought Congress, both Democrats and Republicans alike.  It's worth every moment 
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/dylan-ratigan-rant-debt-negotiations_n_922855.html?