Oh, AAA credit rating -- we never knew how much we loved you until we lost you. Just one more chance, please!

It's like a bad breakup. The warning signs were there. He starts to nitpick and then complain so much more than when the romance began. Remember when you could do no wrong?

He went along when you demanded all the luxuries in life even though you couldn't afford them. What's a few overextended credit cards when you are having a good time?

And then, he started issuing those self-important warnings? Who does he think he is?

Picture a negotiation with your boss that goes something like this:

You walk in with dynamite strapped to your body and demand a raise.

Nope, he says, no raise -- that's off the table.

Fine, you say, then I am not going to do any work.

I can take that, he says, as long as it goes hand in hand with no benefits for you.

All righty then, you counter, but I'll be stealing office supplies.

Fine. Fine. You shake and you have a deal.

That's how the debt-ceiling deal feels to me.

Maybe the cynics are right. Maybe it will prove too heavy a lift to use the occasion of the debt ceiling increase to put in place a large, specific budget fix to reduce our massive deficits.

Enough policymakers now seem to buy the importance of lifting the debt ceiling, and it appears we will find a way to do so in time, thereby avoiding an (inexcusable) default.

In the wake of the recent financial meltdown from which we are still recovering, the United States faces the prospect of yet another crisis—a federal debt crisis. Averting crisis will require tough choices and painful sacrifice, including those from federal workers. This crisis can be averted, however. And the sooner we act, the better. The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (“Fiscal Commission”), on which I served as associate director, has shown a way forward.