Well, that was a brief moment of “Kumbaya” for congressional Republicans and Democrats.

Now we’re apparently back to business as usual over the Affordable Care Act and whether to increase the federal debt ceiling.

Such madness is hard to eradicate.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/193408-mcconnell-says-gop-preparing-for-debt-ceiling-fight

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says Republicans are ready for a fight over raising the debt ceiling. They want to make changes in the Affordable Care Act in exchange for increasing the nation’s borrowing limit.

Sound familiar? It should. We’ve been through this already. It’s as tiresome as ever.

The Kumbaya moment was supposed to have occurred when a bipartisan committee of House members and senators approved a two-year budget and spending plan that would forestall another partial government shutdown. The House voted overwhelmingly to approve it and it appears headed to an equally decisive “yea” vote in the Senate.

It was nice while it lasted, albeit briefly. Now congressional Republicans are threating — once more — to hold the debt ceiling hostage and threaten to force the U.S. government to renege on its financial obligations. Why? Because they just cannot stand the Affordable Care Act.

The government will reach its debt ceiling early in 2014. The fight will commence shortly. Democrats will tell us once more than defaulting on our debts would be catastrophic, a point that many economists agree with. Republicans will insist on concessions before lifting the ceiling.

Here we go once more.

The Grand Old Party should listen to one of its own: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, one of the architects of the just-completed budget deal. Ryan said that compromise means no one gets everything they want. Yet compromise is what’s needed to get things done, he said.

Chairman Ryan also conceded that his party lost the 2012 presidential election and that “elections do have consequences.”

Don’t do this, GOP.