A few brief thoughts on the debt deal, though I probably won't convince anyone who doesn't already agree.

1. I think the debt deal was a modest step in the right direction. It imposes some moderate restraint on spending, and also bars additional suspension of student loan repayments, a policy that is simultaneously fiscally wasteful, inefficient, and regressive. Much, much more, needs to be done, especially on entitlement spending (by far the biggest category of federal expenditures). I am not optimistic it will get done, because neither party seems interested. But a little progress (about $150 billion per year over 10 years, though the deal probably won't last that long) is better than none.

2. I also don't buy the argument that using the debt limit as leverage on spending issues is immoral "hostage-taking." Taking hostages means seizing someone or something that doesn't belong to you and then trading it for something else. By contrast, the power to raise the debt limit (or not raise it) very much belongs to Congress and they have every right to use it as leverage. Almost every significant debt reduction package passed since the 1980s was part of a deal to raise the debt limit. Democrats insisted on concessions in exchange for their support on the debt limit as recently as 2019.

3. It is undoubtedly true that most GOP members of Congress are total hypocrites on fiscal issues. They spend like drunken sailors when a Republican is in the White House, then get fiscal religion when a Democrat is there. But I'd rather they be hypocritical than consistently wrong.

4. The dynamic described in 3 is one of several reasons why I wanted Biden to win the 2020 election.

So the real takeaway from this whole thing is that I was right to endorse Biden! That's what all the headlines should be saying:).