You’re about to hit the ceiling!

As of Monday the United States government has reached its debt ceiling (think of it like a credit card limit).

Though this sounds ominous, reaching the ceiling is more symbolic than substantial. The US treasury will no doubt pull some accounting tricks to allow the US to borrow money until around August 2. By then the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner will ask Congress

to increase the debt limit in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens.

Congress will do as Mr. Geithner asks, right? Well, the Republicans are a little grumpy about our national debt right now (remember those tea-partiers?)

They are demanding major spending cuts be made before they support any growth in the US debt.

Call it brinkmanship or aggressive bargaining but Republican Super Star Paul Ryan expects the negotiations to be resolved at the very “last minute.”

So should we be worried  America might default on its debt?

Probably not as Calculated Risk astutely notes

The first rule for most politicians is to get re-elected, and the easiest way to guarantee losing in 2012 is to throw the country back into recession. If that happened, I believe the voters would correctly blame the leaders of Congress, and I think Congress knows that too.

Furthermore, Simon Johnson, for Slate, doubts that debate will acheive anything as

If President Obama’s administration plays its hand well, the result will be a last-minute extension of the debt ceiling with no significant concessions. It is unclear how Boehner or anyone else would be able to portray that as a political victory.

Which makes us wonder… is the debt ceiling foolish symbolism or a sign of foolish spending? What do you think (especially those under 30 who’ll paying this debt back for decades to come)?