at what point do we say we have borrowed so much that we can't pay it back?
You already have. There's no reasonable way you ever could pay back the federal debt, nor is there any particular need or desire to do so, as the debt is in US dollars; it will naturally deprecate due to inflation.
At what point do we stop borrowing until we can make a plan to pay it all back?
Well, you don't, unless you want to (perhaps permanently) wreck your economy and position as global #1 economic power.
At what point does the rest of the world realize that we won't be able to pay all of it back?
The world already knows this, but it doesn't matter as the world relies on the dollar as a global trade currency. If that ever changes THEN you need to worr, but it's not in anyone's interest to do that as it would hurt everybody else just as much as you guys.
The GOP acts (in public, when there's a (D) prez in the white house; under bush the GOP raised debt ceiling like seven times without even batting an eyelash) as if the building they live in is catastrophically on fire and something has to be done NOW!!! or else all will be lost. However that's not the case, there's no pressing need to do anything right now when the debt ceiling is about to hit.
Especially not doing something irresponsibly drastic like blowing out the (non-existant) fire with this box of dynamite sticks here. That'd just do even more damage to your building, and kill some people in the process.
Sure, something should be done about the defecit, but not by defaulting the US gov't, which would have severe knock-on effects internationally as well as domestically (tens of thousands of gov't employees first going without pay and then getting laid off in droves, not being able to pay bills, home mortgages and getting evicted and so on, car loans, schooling for their kids, insurance and medical expenses, clothes, FOOD etc.) Banks and other credit lenders would take it on the chin when huge numbers of people start defaulting on their personal debts. Businesses relying on revenue from these people would take a hit as well, having to let go of more people, leading to more loss of income, loss of tax revenue meaning less money for roads, schools, hospitals and so on, and a stalling of the economy of the nation as a whole.
Meanwhile, due to the US' inability to pay its loans, credit ratings would drop globally and interest rates on US loans would soar, further crippling your already damaged economy and so on.
But of course, this is nothing a couple more wars lasting another decade couldn't solve. If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, perhaps against Iran...? I know relations are somewhat thawing right now, but those brown people are so SCARY aren't they! You don't know what terrorism they might be hiding in their turbans an shit. What worked for the GOP in the past COULD work again, you just need to doctor some reports like last time and then stir the public sentiment over high heat via your inofficial mouthpiece multinational media conglomerates and then everything's set. Oh, and issue some yellow terror warning alerts and bin laden videos, that worked so well under bush. (Except, he's dead now. Well, not bush of course...)
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