In The News: WTF is the Debt Ceiling? Ten Facts To Help Make Things Clear(er)

For those of us who get twisted and turned around by all the clear facts rhetoric, incendiary language and other muddying-the-waters tactics by the folks on Capital Hill, here is what I have managed to glean through frantic googling and wiki-search.   Basically, we are in crunch time to decide what to do about the huge bill that the US has racked up...

 The ten facts are after the jump!

1. The U.S. National Debt clock says the debt is $14.5 trillion, and that number is rising as we speak.
2. Debt means borrowing against the future. Repayment to China or whoever we’ve borrowed the money from requires return of the original fronted money plus interest. (Imagine the US Govt. has a GIANT invisible credit card and we have been running that sucker and ringing up shit all over town.)
3. The current credit line established by Congress for the U.S. government is $14.3 trillion (funny math+denial keeps us running that invisible credit card even though, apparently, we've already passed the NO. MORE.SPENDING. point).
4. Federal tax revenue annually is about $2.2 to $2.8 trillion. That’s basically what we bring in to pay the bills including interest on the debt.  We get that from people paying their taxes. (PS, the US Govt. is asking us, the people, for some of the lowest taxes in the "first world"...Which is why we had no national healthcare for so long unlike other "first world" countries, a joke of federal social aid, and generally some of the poorest infrastructure and safety nets for the poor and indigent--considering we're considered the 'wealthiest' nation in the world)
5. All week President Obama and leaders from both parties engaged in tense negotiations in a little room within the White House over raising the debt ceiling limit. This means that congress would say, "OK! We're gonna raise the credit limit on the credit card!"  Republicans, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives, have refused to sign-off on a debt ceiling increase without plans to cut spending and promises to not raise any form of taxes.  
6. The reason the above 'plan' makes no sense is because we already have, compared to other "first world" countries, substandard levels of care/protections for the general populace, so while we should cut spending, we also should pro'lly at least LOOK at raising taxes. 
7. All agree the debt ceiling must be raised or the U.S. credit rating will be downgraded resulting in higher interest payments on the $14.5 trillion and a downward spiral in the stock market again.
8. According to transcripts reported by Fox News, the talks broke off when Democrats called for $1.5 trillion in spending reductions while Republicans insisted on $2.4 trillion [over a ten-year period]. The report went on: Democrats say their debt reduction would be higher but Republicans are holding up a "grand bargain" that would call for $4 trillion in debt reductions because they refuse to raise $1 trillion in taxes on upper income Americans."
9. We owe $14.5 trillion. We bring in $2.8 trillion. No one is demanding the debt ceiling be capped. They are arguing over cutting $1.5 to $4 trillion over ten years. 
10. All of the other details are important, but irrelevant to the fact that you do not have to be Precious Ramotswe to figure out that this equation does not make sense.

*sigh*....Frankly I'm just crossing my fingers at this point that the whole shit doesn't hit the fan.  But the ah-MAY-zing page of infographics I've found on taxes, the tax base, and what debt is were almost worth all of the confusion.  Who knew that South Dakota got *Cue Austin Powers voice* THREE.MILLION.DOLLARS.  in pork barrel spending to develop technology that NASA was giving away for free? Now all I have to look up is what the term 'Pork Barrel Spending' refers to....