Nobody thinks this will actually fix anything. People (us representatives?) hope it will slow the decent to chaos, or in hacker terms, it's a patch to buy 3 thr

Nobody thinks this will actually fix anything. People (us representatives?) hope it will slow the decent to chaos, or in hacker terms, it's a patch to buy 3 three months time to figure out what the hell to do. As near as i can tell, there are two schools of thought. 1. try to slow the rate of decline. 2. bite the bullet and get the bad times over with quick. If you look at how people actually voted, only senators up for reelection in tight races (based on fivethrityeight.com) and bullet biters voted no. Senators are not stupid. 75 of them think this is the best way to maintain the status quo - their specialty. So, the bill is fucked up. however there's a good chance what they're passing is better than doing nothing - if your goal is to maintain the status quo. That buys time to do something more sophisticated.