One thing is clear, Boehner is Obama’s bitch.

(Reuters) – Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday caved in to demands by President Barack Obama and agreed to advance legislation raising Washington’s borrowing authority without conditions.

House Speaker John Boehner, announcing to reporters the plan to advance a “clean” debt limit bill to the House floor on Wednesday, said: “We’ll let the Democrats put the votes up. We’ll (Republicans) put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.”

It was not clear when the Democratic-controlled Senate would debate and pass the measure, but it is expected to do so before February 27, when Treasury Secretary Jack Lew estimates he will run out of borrowing authority.

Without an increase in the statutory debt limit, the U.S. government would be forced into an historic default that could create havoc in global financial markets and shut down many federal programs.

He couldn’t extract a single concession out of Obama? Pathetic.

Update: Will Obama give Boehner a belly rub now?

(NBC News) – The House has passed a “clean” extension of the debt limit.

Twenty-eight Republicans joined all but two Democrats to approve the extension of the debt limit until March 2015 — without any additional legislative wish list items attached.

The vote was 221-201.

The Senate is expected to take up the debt limit extension before the end of the week.

Republicans had wanted to attach some kind of policy provision to the must-pass legislation. Members suggested including measures like approving the Keystone XL pipeline or repealing part of the Affordable Care Act, but leaders were unable to secure enough votes for those add-ons to ensure passage. The White House also insisted it would not pay “ransom” for the extension, a position that Obama successfully held during last year’s government shutdown.