One of us grew up in Tennessee with a first cousin who had a dry sense of humor but a deep understanding of political reality. When he was urging against a return to Washington in 1981, saying it was better to remain in Tennessee and continue to take pictures of a nesting Pileated Woodpecker, I explained I had to go back because of the debt limit bill. To which he replied: “You only have two choices — you can either pay ’em or beat ’em out of it.”

Meaning that the question is not really the debt limit but, rather, the fundamental commitment to honor our obligations. It’s about recognizing that the last thing a tenuous and fragile recovery needs is another earthquake, a wave of fear in the private sector that further inhibits job creation.