The debt-ceiling vote isn't about what will be done in the future it is about the integrity of America's commitment to support the bonds we issue. Elected officials have an obligation to maintain that integrity regardless of whether they voted for the programs that required the borrowing in the first place.
Luxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this he knows where the danger is.
Property is unstable and youth perishes in a moment. Life itself is held in the grinning fangs of Death Yet men delay to obtain release from the world. Alas the conduct of mankind is surprising.