Down to The Final Wire

For nearly five months White House and congressional negotiators haggled over ways to contain the deficit before more havoc was wreaked on the economy and mandatory spending cuts went into effect. But partisan sniping and a sheer lack of political courage frustrated a deal. By last week the Oct. 1 deadline for the $100 billion sequestration had raised the pressure to such suffocating levels that politics should have been choked out of the equation. Instead the negotiations grumped into the weekend amid fears that the pact made at the top might be undone by the congressional rank and file.

At times...