On Thursday, according to the Treasury Department, Washington is set to hit its limit on borrowing, meaning money already spent whose bills come due. Now, Treasury can take so-called extraordinary measures to kick the can down the road for a few months, but the $31.4 trillion limit on the national credit card isn’t going away. The United States is the only industrialized nation to have such an arbitrary institution as a debt ceiling, but the players who keep ending up in the same standoff aren’t exactly looking to kill it.

House Republicans, led by newly elevated Speaker Kevin McCarthy, say they won’t move the debt ceiling without corresponding cuts in spending, something President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats insist is not on the table as part of these talks. House Republicans have just five votes to spare at the moment, while Democrats control the Senate and the White House. It’s a moment that seems to demand compromise, but that’s not in the offing, thanks in large part to McCarthy’s nakedly political concession to his hard-right flank that the House would leverage the debt ceiling to shrink the federal government. Democrats, who to this point have proved unified, say Republicans are trying to take the economy hostage to placate their performative right.