Poor O. Doesn’t he looked stressed out? I really know how it feels to be stressed out, stressed out; When you’re face to face with your adversity. ATCQ knows and so does O: The US debt crisis has got him stressing pretty hard. But can the Congress make this thing work out eventually?

Republicans and Democrats are scrambling to come to some agreement over how to address the country’s growing debt. The government must borrow more money or risk defaulting on its debt obligations. President Obama has set a default deadline for this Tuesday, August 2^nd. In order to borrow more money, Congress must agree to raise the country’s debt ceiling, i.e. the agreed upon (that is legislated by law) amount of money that the US government can borrow.

The Obama administration has warned that if Congress does not come up with a plan, the government will not be able to pay for things such as social security cheques, veteran’s payments and money to contractors who make ammunition for the military (pity about the first two but I ain't mad about the third). This could lead to the government shutting down offices, failing to pay the wages of government workers, and so on.

Republicans are putting forward a plan that drastically reduces government spending and does not raise taxes on the rich and corporations. The Democrats have countered with a plan that...wait for it...pretty much does the same.

Like my man Noam Chomsky says, there’s only one political party in the United States: the party of big business. It just so happens to have two wings, the Democrats and the Republicans.

If I were O, I'd get Faith Evans on the phone to serenade me and ease that pressure.

See Simon Black’s latest Politics-As-Usual blog post for a US Debt Ceiling 101. Read, repeat and look smart in front of friends, foes, and potential hook ups.