Debt ceiling. Fiscal cliff. Downgraded credit ratings. Haven't we been through all this before?
In a reprise of a standoff between President Obama and House Republicans from 2011, the debt ceiling is coming up for political debate in Washington again, and once again the consequences could be dire.
To put into easy-to-swallow terms, the debt ceiling is the equivalent to a credit limit for the government's proverbial credit card. As the amount of government debt goes up, they bump up against that limit, at which point it must be raised.
In 2011, that meant a showdown in which the Senate and House agreed on a "fiscal cliff", where - if no compromise could be met - automatic built-in cuts would devastate federal infrastructure to reign spending in. That cliff was, thankfully, averted in the 11th hour.
Now, the parties are playing political hardball once again. And like before, it looks like a compromise won't get done until the last possible moment to do so.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned the nation on Tuesday that the debt ceiling will have to be raised by mid-October... or else.
"If Congress fails to act -- and those measures are exhausted -- we will have to use what cash balances we have on hand to fund the operations of a nearly $4 trillion government," Lew said to the Economic Club of Washington, according to USA Today. "At that point, meeting our nation's financial obligations -- including Social Security and Medicare benefits, payments to our military and veterans, and contracts with private suppliers -- will be put at risk."
The fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, is the deadline for Congress and Obama to get a deal done. According to Business Insider, the conservative caucus in Congress wants to defund Obamacare and make cuts to federal programs on par with the raising of the ceiling they'd be offering.
At $16.7 trillion, the United States' debt is the largest of any country in the world. Great Britian, at $9.8 billion, is a distant second.