Dream on! Jonathan Chait has taken their measure.
The debt limit is a routine vote that Congress must periodically make to authorize payment on debts the government has incurred. It has no impact on the budget, but the failure to lift the debt ceiling means the U.S. government would go into default, a potentially disastrous event. Republicans used the threat of default to extract fiscal-policy concessions from the Obama administration in 2011, and they've attempted to repeat this hostage-taking periodically since. Some Republicans attempt to use as leverage the very credible belief that they are loopy enough to potentially set off a worldwide economic meltdown. South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney tells the New York Times, “I’ll play chicken with you every time. You think I am crazy, and I know you are not.” (I prefer to be governed by political parties whose leading members can answer questions about their sanity unambiguously, but your mileage may vary.) ...Chait,NYMag
