The 100 least self-aware people in America gathered Wednesday night on the Senate floor to applaud themselves for the work they did resolving the crisis that the Senate itself had sparked.


The manufactured crisis, which shut down the government, is estimated to have cost the economy some $24 billion in lost output. Scientific research was set back, disease control was hampered and programs that assist poor women with infants were disrupted, among many other avoidable repercussions. But Congress managed not to blow up the global economy.


So let's let them have their moment.


(All of the remarks in the video above came Wednesday after a deal averting disaster was reached. Really. We're not making this up.)


Also on HuffPost: