The good news is that last week's debt-ceiling deal established there are still some grownups in Congress, in both parties.

The bad news is they don't include either of Missouri's two Republican senators, nor St. Louis' Democratic congresswoman. All three voted to put the nation's full faith and credit — and the global economy — in jeopardy for the sake of self-serving politics.

This was the kind of vote that separates serious leaders from performative panderers. Let there be no question about which category includes Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, and Rep. Cori Bush.

With all the reckless rhetoric flying around lately, it would be easy to conclude the debt-ceiling debate was about whether to allow the nation to take on more debt. It wasn't. The debate was about whether to pay the debts already incurred by Congressionally approved spending.

The debt ceiling itself is a bizarre concept that no clear-thinking accountant would recommend as a business policy. Congress debates and votes upon spending on defense, Social Security, Medicare and everything else in the federal budget — then periodically must take another vote on whether to pay those bills when a pre-determined and generally random overall federal debt limit is reached.

Does Hawley write checks for goods and then stop payment on them because he's suddenly decided to be more frugal? Does Bush run up credit card bills and then refuse to pay them in order to make some point? Because that's what they, and Schmitt, effectively did with their "no" votes.

It's fine to express horror at the more than $31 trillion level of the previous debt ceiling Congress raised last week. But the time to address that horror is while the spending is being approved, not when the bills come due. No one knows for certain what would happen if the U.S. defaulted on its debts because it's never happened. But economists say potential dangers include global stock market plunges, higher interest rates, job losses and more. There is no upside.

The debt ceiling was created early in the last century for fiscal efficiency reasons that no longer make sense. Today, it mainly serves as a wedge that one party (historically, it's usually Republicans) can use as leverage on other issues. The often-used metaphor of taking the economy hostage is apt.

The debt ceiling was raised three times during the Trump administration with none of this fuss. The fuss this time emanated mainly from the cadre of conservative House Republicans who hold Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leash. The fact that President Biden managed to hammer out a deal to avoid a default under these circumstances speaks to his still-apparent skill as a negotiator. The deal allows continued borrowing until after next year's elections.

The fact that moderates in both parties understood the gravity of the situation and provided enough bipartisan support to pass the deal meant extremists could cast their "no" votes knowing they wouldn't have to wear the albatross of an economic calamity. That may be good political strategy, but it's not responsible leadership.

Schmitt couched his opposition as a matter of fiscal responsibility, which is the opposite of true. Hawley said he opposed the deal because it didn't address the U.S. trade deficit with China, which doesn't have any logical connection to the debt ceiling. Missouri Republican Reps. Eric Burlison and Mark Alford both joined them at the kids' table.

Bush, coming from the other end of the ideological spectrum, objected to the deal's cuts to IRS funding, which was one of the Republican wins. She's not wrong — the GOP's obsession with gutting the IRS actually makes the fiscal situation worse by missing money owed from corporations and the wealthy. But how is the solution to risk the even worse outcome of a debt default?

Kudos to Missouri Republican Reps. Ann Wagner, Sam Graves, Blaine Luetkemeyer and Jason Smith, and Democrat Emanuel Cleaver, for being grownup enough to put the nation's fiscal stability ahead of childish political games.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: Kenny Eliason at Unsplash