NEWSPAPER editors and television news producers tell us that occasionally when another hurricane engulfs Florida, another earthquake shatters San Francisco, or those wildfires are back in California in the summer, they sometimes joke about going to the archives and “using” versions of the reports on these stories from last year.

Let’s face it, the TV images of the wildfires that burned in Santa Monica in one year look almost the same as those that were shot there in another, and so do the interviews with distressed residents and the rescue operations.

Which brings me to the coverage of the spectacle that takes place in Washington every year in the form of the debate that commences when the United States hits the limit on how much money it can borrow, aka the debt limit.