Act now to avert crisis on debt limit

Debt limit? What debt limit? Some House Republicans have come up with a scheme that would supposedly allow the Treasury Department to avoid running up against the nation’s debt ceiling by prioritizing certain obligations — and let other payments effectively wait in line.

That is a dubious plan. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said that with the countless payments the department routinely processes, there’d be no way to implement the GOP scheme.

Treasury officials have said the nation could run into trouble as early as June, depending on tax receipts and other factors; real problems could come somewhat later.

Either way, the point is the same: Unless Congress acts to boost the debt ceiling, the federal government will default on its financial obligations for the first time in our nation’s history.

Anyone being serious about the situation understands there are just two choices: boost the debt ceiling, or face financial catastrophe. Though this should seem an obvious choice, there are a handful of extremists in the GOP who appear ready to let everything go to ruin. Because that’s their way.

In years past, whenever the nation has been in similar straits, financial calamity has been warded off, sometimes at the last minute, with lawmakers coming together to forge a deal.

We hope that happens again. Playing chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States is no game.

Republicans need to face reality on the debt limit. Their plan to fiddle and diddle, prioritizing this while shelving that, is wholly unworkable. Consider, too, the bad political optics of working to pay foreign nations first — while setting aside our domestic payments for another day.

Congress needs to boost the debt limit, and to do so without waiting until the last minute. It needs to do this without attaching outside conditions to the plan. Boost it clean, boost it freely, and boost it soon.

Then, but only then, can serious budget debates commence.