What's The Worst That Could Happen? ctd...

July 7th, 2011

Dave Weigel observes that congressional reaction to the debt crisis is not exactly inspired:

"You'd never know there was a debt crisis. Congress is in session this week because Republicans didn't want a weeklong holiday recess, and Democrats obliged them. "Our country is going bankrupt,"said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., last week, making the ask. "We should not be going on holiday."

It was a deal: no holiday. Congress is on emergency watch with weeks to go, maybe, before an analyst at Moody's or S&P gets cut off in traffic, needs to vent, and decides to downgrade the credit rating of the United States. What does Congress look like on emergency watch? Picture the way Congress looks at any other time. Got it? Now: Slow it down."

Yup. The only reason there was no technical "recess," as it turns out, really was to prevent the appointment of a head to the CFPB.