The Treasury Department now estimates that unless Congress acts soon, the nation will hit its debt ceiling, threatening to upend the entire government and economy.

Officials believe the nation will reach this limit between April 15 and May 31. Unless Congress passes a bill to raise the legal borrowing limit for the Treasury Department, the nation would have to immediately and drastically raise taxes and/or cut spending to ensure America pays its bills on time.

The debt ceiling is a deadline that lawmakers literally cannot afford to miss, but thanks to extended debate about the current budget measures (as well as a Congressional recess until March 28th and during the last two weeks of April), the threat of this is now very real. The consequences of a failure to act are all too real as well.

Any real or perceived threat to America’s ability to pay back its loans would have devastating consequences for a nation so fully dependent on debt. As well as being cut off from future loans, interest rates would spike, and markets would suffer greatly. Last but not least, while the economy has been stagnant, such inaction by Congress would threaten to put the nation into a full blown depression overnight.

As lawmakers have failed to do their most important job, make laws, about the budget during the past decade, kicking fiscal responsibility down the road, America’s budgetary and tax system has become a complete nightmare. This has led to the recent debate about spending cuts and tax reform as well as multiple threats of a government shutdown.

Such inane behavior by our elected officials is exactly why America’s economy is in crisis. A combination of reactive politics, partisan bickering and corrupted campaign finance have produced economic policy that is wholly unbeneficial to the public at-large. Without taking sensible steps to address our trade and budget deficits, instead of running a three ring circus, conditions will most likely fail to improve.

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