The government may shut down. We’ve done this before, and Congress has usually resolved the issue in a few days time, albeit, at varying levels of inconvenience to constituents.

Far more serious is the threatened debt ceiling crisis. When Congress approached the brink on the debt ceiling in 2011, Standard and Poor’s, the credit rating agency, lowered the credit rating for the United States for the first time in history. At the last minute, Congress raised the debt ceiling (albeit at the cost of the infamous  sequester agreement) and the United States dollar remained the safest currency in the world. If we actually refuse to pay our bills this time, our premier standing will be at risk.

To our discredit, we lack understanding of how our financial crises influence more than our domestic interests. We don’t take into account how they affect our foreign standing in the world. How much would our influence in the world decrease if, say, the Chinese renminbi became the world’s top currency? And how can we expect others nations to aspire to democracy if they see the world’s most famous democratic nation writhing in constant financial paralysis?