Sen. Kelly Ayotte won some Tea Party bona fides when she voted this week against the debt ceiling deal. Too bad, because it was the wrong vote.

“I am unable to support a bill that delivers the largest debt ceiling increase in the history of our nation, but does very little to confront the underlying problems that have brought us here,” Ayotte said. She went on, “I have said we need major spending reductions and we need to reform our entitlement programs. I cannot in good conscience agree to a deal that continues to perpetuate the culture of overspending and borrowing in Washington.”

Ayotte was in the company of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, who said of the deal, “what we're doing is giving President Obama a blank check to raise spending another $2.4 trillion, potentially. The issue isn't even about spending and what we're going to cut and what we should prioritize. The issue is about giving him one more blank check.”

Actually, the issue was whether to raise the debt ceiling, which needed to be raised so the government could pay its existing obligations. Republicans, emboldened by the Tea Party movement, smartly insisted on a dollar in debt reduction — in the form of spending cuts — for every dollar in new borrowing authority. But some, including Ayotte and Bachmann, got the idea that the debt ceiling deadline could be used to leverage even more: a fundamental shift in Washington's culture.

That was ridiculously unrealistic. Partly because Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House, and partly because cutting $4 trillion or more in spending is a huge task that would take more time than was available in a divided Congress, actual reductions in federal spending and the federal debt were never on the table. The options were only: a deal that does not cut the rate of debt growth, one that cuts it a little bit, or default. Ayotte and Bachmann — as well as 95 House and seven Senate Democrats who preferred default to a deal that didn't raise taxes — voted against the best option — realistic cuts — in the name of holding out for a perfect option that didn't exist.