Congress, meanwhile, is not showing any signs of budging. Many Republicans and some Democrats say they won't raise it unless Congress and President Obama agree to significant spending cuts and other ways to curb debt. (Social Security and Medicare squeezed)

  If lawmakers don't get it together by Aug. 2, the United States will no longer be able to pay its bills in full.

S& P said it did not see Washington agreeing on a plan for its dept before the Nov 2012 presidential election.

Defaulting on BOND in unthinkable, it debt now stood at US$14.29 trillion (S$17.6 trillion)  a click away which can plunging U.S. into it ever worst finance disaster again.

How many times has the ceiling been raised? Since March 1962, the debt ceiling has been raised 74 times, according to the Congressional Research Service. Ten of those times have occurred since 2001. Expect more of the same over the next decade. Barring major changes to spending and tax policies, " Congress would repeatedly face demands to raise the debt limit," CRS wrote.

What happens if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling before Aug. 2? No one knows for sure. But the going assumption is that no good can come of it.

What happens if Congress blows the debt ceiling?

Treasury would not have authority to borrow any more money. And that can be a problem since the government borrows to make up the difference between what it spends and what it takes in. It uses that borrowed money to help fund operations and pay creditors.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters.

teeth53 thot: What can happen here, when our politics is based on U.S. style policy.

I can ONLY see two big elephant fighting it out for it own political selfless own  agenda, not our own two PAP big political heavy weight (MM Lee and SM Goh)  that will weight us down.

Our finance Mnistry Tharman had said, it NOLY a click away from the worst disaster, looking at PIIG, China tightening policy, inflation and now U.S. also always live on borrow debt.