There is no crisis.

Editor,

Refusing to reopen the government because the medical device industry, unlike every other sector of the health care industry, refused to pony up any contribution at all to fund the ACA in early negotiations and were therefore slapped with a $30 billion tax over 10 years?

Shutting down the entire U.S. government over this wonkish nit?

This is proportional?

I would hate to see how Republicans punish a kid they catch with a hand inside the cookie jar. Stress positions? Waterboarding? Forced feeding?

And what is with offering to raise the debt ceiling for 6 weeks?

Six weeks?!?

What the Republicans want -- what the Republicans' ultimatum is -- changes every couple of hours. Repeal Obamacare! Repeal the medical device tax! Gut Social Security! As with every cockamamie argument Republicans put forth, I am lost after the third variation. Their rhetoric falls flat, so they drop that demand and start demanding something else.

Here is an idea: open up the government, raise the debt ceiling, then go back to discussing policy within the venerable parameters of the ordinary legislative process.

There is no crisis. The crisis is in the Republicans' imagination.

Re: "No Quick Deal, but G.O.P. Debt Limit Offer Shifts the Tone" (10/11/2013)