Jonathan Bernstein: “The debt limit is a foolish, unnecessary law that should be repealed anyway. But Democrats have known this moment was coming for months. If repealing the debt limit isn’t on the table — and that probably can’t be done through reconciliation — they should at least provide for four years’ worth of borrowing room. Better still, they could set the new limit so high that it effectively makes further increases unnecessary. Perhaps that’s a tough vote, but it’s unlikely there are any voters who would ignore an attack ad over a simple one-year debt limit increase but be outraged about a larger one.”
“In other words: It’s always been locked in that Democrats would have to take one tough debt-limit vote. But whatever minimal risk that involves, the real danger is that they come close enough to a default to harm the economy — assuming they wouldn’t actually allow a default.”
