At least some players in the world of High Finance are starting to ease up about the consequences of the United States defaulting on its debt. Until recently, the consensus had been that any default caused by Congress' failure to raise the debt ceiling would risk a calamitous panic, so the hike shouldn't be open to the politics of brinksmanship. But now that analysts listening into Washington are expecting a ceiling hike to coincide with long-term debt reduction measures, then, well, maybe a brief "technical default" of a "few days" would be worth it if Congress needs that time to strike a deal. Sounds easy! Let's do it. But maybe not? Because this all rests on a pretty thin reading of our irreparably broken political system.

Here's why Huma Abedin, the digitally cuckolded wife of Anthony Weiner, has kept a low profile in the wake of her husband's humiliation and quietly signaled that their marriage will survive: She's in a family way.

You all are proud passengers aboard the Herman Cain Train, yes? It's basically a cake-walk for the Republican presidential candidate, at this point, to win the presidency by 100 percentage points. So now we should only bother ourselves with what he'll do when he's in the Oval Office. And apparently he won't sign any bills longer than three pages.

Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh simply had to resign from Congress last year, as our polarized politics were preventing him from singlehandedly saving the world in his role as a mere public servant. "At this time," as he said in his powerful resignation speech, "I simply believe I can best contribute to society in another way: creating jobs by helping grow a business, helping guide an institution of higher learning, or helping run a worthy charitable endeavor." Got it? He would sacrifice his sizable political power to help America, by creating jobs, giving to charity, and advancing higher education.

House Speaker John Boehner quickly put together some vague vote on American involvement in the Libya war today, which the Obama administration technically has been waging illegally for over two weeks, and which Congress has refused either to authorize or end.

For the past two weeks, President Obama has not had the legal authority from Congress to use military action in Libya. I know I'm being a stickler, but if we're going to get further and further involved in a third war with no plan in both the short and long term, then Congress should at the very least sign off on it as the law requires it to. The other option for Congress is to use its authority to end this altogether — which it appeared willing to do yesterday, before the Republican leadership pulled the vote from the floor.

House Republicans will give President Obama the vote he requested on a "clean" debt ceiling hike today, meaning one without any spending cuts attached. Every Republican and at least half of Democrats are expected to vote against it, thereby giving Republicans the opportunity to say to the president, See? We told you that a bill to prevent America from defaulting on its debt and the global economy from collapsing wouldn't pass without some fundamental changes to the social contract attached, so now let's, uh, end Medicare or some such. What a world, right?

Remember that thing the Obama administration started a couple of months ago, something about "bombing the shit out of Libya"? No? Well it was right around the start of March Madness; perhaps you were distracted. But the Libya War, and America's military involvement in it, is still quite active. The only thing that's changed is that it's probably in violation of the law now.

New York's 26th congressional district went to the polls on Tuesday to pick a replacement for their former representative Christopher Lee, who resigned after we caught him sending shirtless photos to women he met on Craigslist. The winner? Democrat Kathy Hochul, whose victory has been declared a repudiation of the Republican Medicare plan. Kathy! We don't necessarily expect a thank-you or anything, but if you want to say "hi," you can reach us at 646-470-4295.

Elizabeth Warren, the consumer advocate and Harvard professor who's heading up the brand-new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its infancy, stopped by the House of Representatives today for a hearing called — seriously — "Who's Watching the Watchmen?" It got kind of intense!

Now here's something you couldn't have imagined: Members of Congress tend to outperform the stock market with their personal investments! And you all thought they were so stupid.

While Barack Obama was sharing fine teas and cakes with the Queen of England and Kate Middleton in London today, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu swooped himself into a long, colorful address to a joint session of Congress. Everyone loved the guy, especially Republicans! Is there any sort of waiver or whatever that they can give him to run for the U.S. presidency? Some would hope.

Congressional Republicans are falling under the spell of an unorthodox group of financial experts who dispute the views of their peers and say that the U.S. could default briefly on debt payments without major, lasting consequences to the U.S. economy and international markets.

Los Angeles Democrat Dan Adler, of "I'M KOREAN! WE MINORITIES SHOULD STICK TOGETHER!" campaign ad fame, received 285 votes in his Congressional primary. That's half of one percent of the vote. I guess the Asian-Jewish laundromat vote wasn't as critical as he thought? [Previously]

Dan Adler, a former Disney executive running for Congress in L.A., has released the Jim Belushi SNL skit of campaign ads. In a bid to reach Asian constituents, Adler, a Democrat, saunters into a laundromat where a Korean lady screams, "I HAVE ISSUES! MEDICARE! I'M KOREAN!" Then, some unusually straightforward race-pandering:

It doesn't seem like America's path towards deficit reduction will include Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to privatize and voucherize Medicare anymore, friends. Why? Because President Obama was such a jerk about it.

The House of Representatives passed Paul Ryan's Path to Prosperity budget this afternoon. It will die in the Senate, of course, but now it goes on record as the House Republicans' official fiscal plan for the future.

So the deal for the "largest spending cut in history" that no one knew the components of until ~5 minutes ago is coming up for rubber-stamping today, to avoid a government shutdown. The votes are expected to be there. But maybe we'll get lucky and the government of the greatest nation in the history of the world will shut down anyway, over confusing math.

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and 40 other protesters—including members of the city council—were arrested by Capitol Police on Monday after they blocked Constitution Avenue near the Capitol in protest of aspects of the budget deal reached by Congress which limit the city's autonomy, specifically prohibiting the use of DC public funds for abortions.

Fresh off last week's down-to-the-wire spending showdown, President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are locking horns again on fiscal matters — and this time the stakes for the U.S. economy are even more monumental.