What Did You Learn From the Cliff Debate, Dorothy?

jaredbernsteinblog.com — Well, I’m glad that’s over. Now that the House has passed the Senate compromise bill, the full spate of tax increases and spending cuts that went into effect yesterday will be shut off (though the sequester was just suspended for a couple of months). Still, I don’t mean to be a downer, but any relief you feel should be analogized to how much better you feel when you stop banging a hammer on your head. We’ve avoided, for the moment, a self-made trap. Now, of course, we’re on to the next one—the debt ceiling, which really is a cliff in that to go over it (can you “go over” a ceiling?) is to default. So, did we learn anything from the episode in reckless governing? Here’s my list, but these are more things we already knew than things we learned.

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