We also cannot allow the old divisions that have characterized the climate debate for so many years to block our progress.

If my goals come into conflict with your goals, reason tells me that I must either thwart your goals, or give up caring about mine; but reason cannot tell me to favor one choice over the other.

But yesterday, the Republican leaders in the Senate once again used parliamentary procedures to block it.

It implies no right of way, and if it could speak would say something like, "Proceed at your own risk, " as vehicles of all kinds cut you off and zoom past.

But if 60 votes are required because of a filibuster, ultimately some Republicans would have to vote for the increase lest the party be blamed for a debt crisis.