The once great nation of America is now facing another epidemic known as what politicians refer to as the “debt ceiling.”

Although House Speaker, John Boehner, republican, and the re-elected president, Barack Obama, democrat, have been working tirelessly to reach a compromise for the pre-existing, and still imminent, crisis known as the “fiscal cliff,” the problem has been stretched out and stalled into what is now known as the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling is simply the allowed legal limit of borrowing by the federal government. Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner, announced that the debt is coming closer and closer to its limit of 14.3 trillion dollars.

If the nation does reach the ceiling, the outcomes will, of course, be disastrous. In more specific manners, borrowed funds would be a thing of the past, and the entire government could just shut down, putting the democracy into chaos.

Both republicans and democrats want to avoid this, but they cannot, and it appears as though they will not, reach a compromise because of necessary cuts to the budget. Obama has stated that he will not negotiate anything regarding with paying the nation’s nearly-infinite amount of bills.

The debt ceiling, quite frankly, is not necessary, despite the focus and concentration that each politician in Washington is giving it. The nation could recover in a more beneficial way by just having spending and taxes approved by Congress. However that is not the difficult, grueling way that Congress prefers.

In addition to it being not necessary and proper, it doesn’t even reduce deficits for anyone.

The only thing the people can do is hope for their respective leaders to reach an agreement. Otherwise, they themselves could be gone.