Explain the debt ceiling crisis and analyze the effects of party polarization on efforts to address this problem

What will be an ideal response?

The ideal answer should:
a. Define the debt ceiling as the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow to meet its budget obligations.
b.Explain that during the 2011 crisis, the federal government faced a situation in which if the budget ceiling were not raised, the government would run out of money and risk defaulting on debts and/or shutting down key programs such as Social Security.
c.Describe the factors that contributed to the impasse between the two parties in Congress, specifically the refusal by liberal Democrats to cut spending and the insistence by conservative Republicans on deep spending cuts.
d. Demonstrate how party polarization, the gap between the two major parties on ideological grounds, made it impossible for President Obama to negotiate a deal with Speaker Boehner, in part because moderates were in short supply and conservatives exercised extreme pressure on moderates to hold the party line.
e. Discuss how this experience further emboldened President Obama to bypass Congress and rely on unilateral power to achieve his objectives.