“Not raising the debt limit does not result in default.”
Let’s ask a more basic question: why is default a “bad” thing? Have you seen the benefit from this profligate spending? Has your family? If not, then why should you yoke yourself and your future generations to a debt that fundamentally CANNOT be paid off?
If your drunken neighbor spends all his money, gets foreclosed on and ends up in the street as a result of his profligacy, are you responsible to spend the rest of your life in debt to buy him a new house and support him? If not, then how is this any different?
In this particular case, yours and my -- that is our -- "drunken neighbor" has been pissing away our money and we all live in the same house.
In the event of default, among other things, interest rates on the national debt will go up...meaning that commercial interest rates will go up...and all prices will follow...and we'll have to deal with rampant inflation along with a continuing recession.
Actually, the debt isn't impossible -- it can be dealt with. But it's going to require a.) spending cuts and b.) a growing economy. The U.S. economy is a powerful machine -- if it's allowed to function.