Train wreck in progress?

The New York Times' John Harwood on the debt ceiling impasse: "The toughest legislative negotiations always resemble those old movies in which a terrified and helpless damsel lies bound to the railroad tracks. At the last instant, a hero intervenes to stop the locomotive. It happened with tax reform in the 1980s, deficit reduction in the ’90s, and the health care overhaul last year. Odds remain good that because of the immense pressure for action on all involved, the pattern will repeat itself this week on raising the debt limit and averting a default by the United States government." Unfortunately, as Harwood notes, the margin of error is exceedingly small.