McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, is bailing out Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, New York). McConnell will deliver enough GOP votes to help Democrats increase the national debt limit by $480 billion through December. The Senate reportedly will vote today on this bipartisan fiscal-recklessness pact.

If McConnell planned to collapse beneath Schumer’s pressure, he should have done so quietly. Instead, McConnell very dramatically persuaded Senate Republicans unanimously to ignore Schumer’s and President Biden’s cheap default drama and, instead, invite him, Pelosi, and Biden to push Democrats to boost borrowing thresholds on their own.

McConnell held a news conference to highlight GOP unity. Having displayed resolve and rallied the Republican base, McConnell now whips out his oft-deployed white flag, just as the battle began. This will enrage and demoralize Republicans who, just days ago, were girding for a major fight over fiscal responsibility.

Had McConnell’s nerve not vanished like a sandcastle at high tide, he could have forced Democrats to walk and chew an entire turkey at the same time. Grappling with the debt limit would have disoriented through much of October, even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D – California) scrambles to pass the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill and Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better tax-hike and welfare boondoggle before her self-imposed Halloween deadline. Mitch’s debt-limit giveaway lets Democrats drop that Butterball and march single-mindedly toward their socialist utopia.