If the president caves in and makes concessions, then Cruz's stock goes up and if those concessions consist of, or include, delaying Obamacare, then Cruz heads the Republican ticket in 2016.
If the Republicans back down, Cruz becomes persona non grata within his own party.
And if no one backs down and the economy crashes
like Business Week is predicting it will, well...
Our new military administered government will likely see fit to publicly hang Ted Cruz in the middle of Times Square.