‘Chicken’ is a dangerous automotive sport, even if both drivers privately resolve to not collide head-on with their opponent. Things can go wrong, slip out of control, or be precipitated into disaster at the last moment by a simple misjudgment, or even an act of bravado.

The rapidly approaching collision in Congress over the budget is only 10 days away, and even if its all just political theater, things have a way of going south in unexpected ways. A failure of a phone call to get through, or a courier being stuck in traffic could easily spiral into an international crisis. And of course, there are actors in Washington who really believe a crisis would be ‘no big deal’ or even a desirable outcome. And then there are those who feel a real catastrophe will be blamed on the other side anyway, therefore making it a viable political tactic.

The more times we play this game, the more likely it is something will go wrong.