A refusal to raise the debt ceiling for 'ideological reasons' ignores America's connection to economies throughout the world, and assumes we somehow control unforeseen events. We don't. 

In the same way a streak of bad luck can ruin an individual — losing a job, then falling ill, then losing a home — the same thing can happen to a country. Even if creditors could somehow be paid without raising the debt ceiling, our country is now so financially strapped that all it would take is an unforeseen natural disaster to unleash a chaotic, downward spiral. According to Munich Re, a German reinsurance company, Hurricane Katrina cost $125 billion in economic damage, Japan's mega-disaster cost $210 billion by the end of June.

The damage from our economic crisis is too enormous to suddenly wish it away and self-righteously declare we can't have more debt. Blinders off: It's way too late for that. 

It's also time to realize the economic crisis is so enormous only fools could expect it to be neatly solved by the next president-elect after George W. Bush. This baby may end up burning through two or three Presidencies before it's tamed.