I think the debt ceiling thing is pretty easy to understand. Our politicians want more room to print and or borrow more money to spend. They have spent 14 trillion(not enough space to type the zeroes)of money we dont have in the name of the nanny state. If the debt ceiling is raised, the debt will go past 15 trillion pretty quick. The reason that cut, cap and balance was offered up was to get control of that spending. I guess thats why it wasn't even allowed to be discussed in the senate. It will cut their power to spend your money(or print more, or borrow from the Chinese to fund our Gov. spending). Cant have that. The reason we are at this point is not because we don't pay enough taxes, it's because your government knows that power comes from money and those that control the money have the power and spending vast amounts on people is control. People will fight for "their guy" to have the ability to spend us into oblivion. I think there are many in this country, including our current administration, that believe in the philosophy of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need". The people that control our debt rating have said that unless 4 trillion is cut we will be down graded. Our politicians have decided to ignore them and offer 1.6 trillion(give or take a couple of Billion dollars) over 10 years, but large scale spending will take place immediately. How many Billions do we pay per month just on the interest? There goes the power of the all mighty dollar and on BO's watch. It would be funny if it werent so serious. If we default, the important bills will still be paid because we still take in Billions of dollars a month in tax revenew. If you don't get yours, it's because your president chose not to pay you.