Of debt limits and the like: Another Long Hot Summer?

"The only time anything ever gets done is at the last minute . . ." -- Some wit or another.

By Odinn I hope the elected Federal Government gets it done at the last minute. "It" being an increase in the federal debt limit.

If Something Is Not Done by 2 August . . . the possible consequences are beyond such words as "dire" or "grave." The macroeconomic ones -- the instability of the markets, the flight from the US dollar as the international reserve currency, the certification to all the world that the US has dropped to Third World status -- pale in comparison to the more personal ones. How to pay bills if my SSDI does not arrive. How my parents and Jameece's will fare if Social Security pensions and veteran's benefits are held up. Will the kids' schools open next month if the district's allotment of Federal aid does not arrive? What happens if people take to the streets with weapons because their SNAP benefits have not been paid and their children are hungry? What happens if the President decides that the 14th Amendment's forbidding of the impairment of the full faith and credit of the US Government supersedes the House of Representatives' hold on the purse strings of the entire government and Tea Party types decide to launch a putsch?

I am not in the mood to go into the various arguments for or against or to state my positions in this debate. If you know me well, you know where I stand.

Looks like 2011 might be another long, hot summer.