the threat of default have become political bargaining chips. that's what worries them. i have told viewers of this program that we will always raise the debt ceiling, we always have and always will. what john chambers and david bearce, the most incompetent analyzers of treasury debt in american history fail to understand is that the debt ceiling has always been a political bargaining chip. the political game of the debt ceiling just has never been played quite as loudly as it was played this year. almost half of the congress almost always votes against increasing the debt ceiling, the party out of power leaves raising the debt ceiling to the party in power. that's why senator barack obama voted against raising the debt ceiling when the republicans had a majority in the united states senate. it's not that senator obama was really opposed to raising the