Democrats Are Making a Mistake on the Debt Limit

Jonathan Bernstein: “Fresh off an unexpectedly resilient performance in the midterms, the Democrats appear to be bungling things right off the block by making a major political miscalculation on how to handle the debt ceiling.”

“Democratic leaders have signaled that they don’t intend to address the borrowing limit in the current lame-duck session of Congress, when their majorities in the House and the Senate would theoretically give them a shot at raising or even eliminating the cap entirely without the help of Republican votes.”

“If there is a debt crisis or, even worse, a government default caused by breaching the borrowing cap, the blame should indeed fall on Republicans. But Democrats are kidding themselves if they think that they won’t be held responsible for the eventual economic fallout.”