Daily Herald opinion: There must be a better way to govern than these repeated financial crises

This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Is there anyone in America who is not bone weary of the seemingly regular brinkmanship over the U.S. government's ability to pay its bills?

For the first half of this year, politicians in Washington kept Americans on tenterhooks as they wrangled over spending issues to try to avoid a debt-ceiling crisis that threatened to disrupt millions of families and likely lead to a global economic meltdown. A last-minute agreement between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden allowing the ceiling to be lifted staved off disaster.

But it was only a temporary solution.

First, the new debt ceiling, experience teaches us all too well, will be reached soon enough, and we'll likely find ourselves right back where we were in May.

Second, and the issue of the moment, the debt ceiling agreement couldn't allay the annual financial arm wrestling between Republicans and Democrats that now centers on simply meeting the requirement to have an annual spending plan for government by Oct. 1. Failing to achieve that may not be as consequential as defaulting on U.S. debt, but it will lead to a shutdown of most non-critical government operations and disruptions to millions of lives.

With the failure Wednesday of House Republicans to agree on a temporary funding bill, many observers see little hope of avoiding that fate - although McCarthy told reporters to remember "It's not Sept. 30 - the game is not over."

He's right about that, and most of us are watching the clumsy political machinations with all-but-blind faith that surely our leaders will not allow things to get to that point.

The problem, though, is that McCarthy's characterization is all too true. Yes, Washington - and Springfield and all of government, for that matter - seems often able to pull fiscal rabbits out of hats in matters of days or even hours when circumstances demand it. But the larger concern here is that the battle over spending is, indeed, a game, a sad financial version of "chicken" in which each party pushes its positions to the limit with the hope that the other will be blamed for the consequences.

In the current situation, that puts McCarthy on the political hot seat. By all accounts, he would like to reach a bipartisan deal to avoid a shutdown, but he's stymied by far-right Republicans who refuse to consider any plan that doesn't meet their demands for spending reductions. The conventional thinking is that all Republicans will take the blame if no agreement can be reached, and there's justification for that.

But let's not forget that they're in that position because, happy to see their adversaries squirm, no House Democrats will help McCarthy out - and none in the Senate would help if the most-recent bill even made it that far. McCarthy might be able to break the impasse if he would negotiate with Democrats to produce a bill they would support - but that would likely cost him his speakership and lead to even more political disarray in the House.

So, we wait and watch. And dread to think of what will happen if the "game" ends badly.