The dysfunctional behavior in our U.S. Congress needs to be addressed if our much larger global problems, such as climate change, are to be dealt with in a timely manner. One article I read said, "the brinksmanship came on a matter of economic urgency..." This kind of behavior is typical of politicians who maintain their extreme beliefs until the last possible moment, keeping up a conviction until the direst of ramifications are in their face and only then will they back down.
This is the kind of behavior that will destine the USA, and probably the planet, to continue policies which protect the oil and gas corporate interests, continue to emit more CO2 gases into the atmosphere, and thus lead to irreversible global climate change.
As John Sterman of MIT Sloan School of Business wrote: "Whereas complex systems such as the climate and economy are dynamic, tightly coupled, governed by feedback, nonlinear, self-organizing, adaptive and evolving, our mental models tend to be static and narrow. We are often unaware of the delayed and distal impacts of our decisions, overemphasizing the local and short term. We don't understand the process of accumulation (stocks and flows), feedback, time delays, non-linearity and other concepts necessary to understand the dynamics of complex systems."
What he's saying is that there are significant delays between the causes of climate change (excess CO2 emissions) and their impacts (droughts, floods, hurricanes, etc.). If we wait until it's "in our face," as is the case with many of our leaders today, then we are doomed to not act in time to avert what could have been much less severe consequences if we'd acted sooner.
Our country deserves better. We deserve better. We must do better. Watch Jim Hansen's TED talk, and then write to your representatives and demand they do better... for our children, and their children.