At the risk of sounding like a hapless adolescent who is completely naive and doesn’t understand how the sausage is made in Washington, it’s past time for the more responsible Senate Republicans and Democrats to sit in the room and a defuse the parliamentary nuke that is about to go off this week.

Yes, launching any negotiations at this late stage in the game will be incredibly difficult. We are only a few days away from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell practically throwing a grenade into the Senate chamber and blowing up the place. Trust between the parties is non-existent at this point. Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Roll Call that, while avoiding the nuclear option is everybody’s preference, “I think it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out whom we trust to negotiate anything.”