Once again, it seems, the federal government stands at the edge of a pending debt crisis. According to recent estimates, even while the nation enjoys the longest uninterrupted economic expansion in memory and unemployment hovering at bargain basement levels, our national addiction to red ink-funded government spending means the Treasury could run out of cash in September.

The Treasury Department could creatively shuffle money across its many accounts and find additional spending power as a brief and temporary fix. Eventually, Congress will either raise the debt limit again, face another government shutdown, or allow the United States to become another member of that notorious set of countries that have defaulted on their debt.