Republicans in the Senate are playing a game of debt limit chicken, and the edge of the cliff is getting dangerously close.

The federal government’s fiscal year ends today, and without a continuing resolution to allow spending for government operations, and an increase in the national debt limit, we could see a government shutdown and a disastrous default on the national debt.

Republicans voted Monday night against a bill that would have funded government operations temporarily, to early December, while providing emergency funds for Hurricane Ida and other disaster relief and for Afghan refugees. It would also have suspended the debt limit to allow the government to continue borrowing to pay its bills.

For some reason, Sen. Mitch McConnell feels his party will come out ahead if the government shuts down. It never has in the past when Republicans refused to keep government working. Perhaps he feels Republicans can leverage more out of the Democrats who are pushing President Joe Biden’s massive spending bill. Perhaps he feels Republicans will look like the party of fiscal responsibility once again.

That is unlikely. Republicans and Democrats long ago headed down the path of massive spending and skyrocketing deficits. Republicans backed the Donald Trump tax cuts and the spending programs that have helped push our national debt to over $28 trillion. Nobody in government is blameless for that figure, but Republicans are in no position to claim they are more careful with the national purse.

The prospect of a federal government shutdown and defaulting on federal loans is too serious to allow to happen. McConnell knows that, just as Democrats do. It’s time for Congress to quit playing chicken with the federal budget and avoid this disaster.