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The shutdown and the debt ceiling

A deal at the wire

Oct 16th 2013, 17:59 by R.M. and J.P.P. | WASHINGTON, DC

JOURNALISTS occasionally get mocked for leaving things until the last minute. But a fingernail-chewing tabloid hack would struggle to compete with Congress for excellence in procrastination. Having known for months that the debt ceiling had to be raised in the autumn to avoid a default, and having known for a few weeks that the Treasury reckoned that October 17th was the magic day, Senators finally struck a deal on October 16th.

The agreement would finance the government at sequestration-levels until January 15th and raise the debt ceiling until February 7th. In the meantime, negotiators would be required to complete work on a ten-year budget plan by December 13th. In return for ending the crisis Democrats have made a small concession to those who want to gut the Affordable Care Act: income verification rules for people obtaining subsidised health insurance on the new exchanges will tightened.

That will hardly satisfy conservatives in the House, but they have played themselves out of the game with their intransigence. Two attempts by John Boehner, the Republican speaker, to rally his caucus behind a deal failed on October 15th. Mr Boehner will now put the Senate's deal before the full House, where it is expected to pass with mostly Democratic support. In the Senate it appears

to have bipartisan support—hardliners such as Ted Cruz have said they will not delay the measure. America has perfected a form of dysfunctional governance that relies on frantic negotiations and last-minute deals to end self-imposed crises. It's no way to run a country. Each time politicians bring America to the brink of disaster it chips away at the country's image and undermines its creditworthiness. The consequences should not be overstated, but the slow erosion of trust in American promises—most notably its promise to pay its debts—is no less a cause for concern than the disaster seemingly avoided.

And the damage continues. The resolution to this failed extortion attempt sets the stage for a renewed effort in three-months time. For Republicans, it may seem less reasonable now to

think that budgetary and debt-ceiling brinkmanship will bear fruit. But it was unreasonable to believe that the president's signature domestic policy might be exchanged for economic hostages

in the first place. Good sense, or perhaps good leadership, appears to be lacking in the party. Mr Boehner has proven unable to control his more radical members.

Further political paralysis is likely. This makes politicians' habit of creating crises which can only be resolved through movement either a touching act of faith or a strange delusion.