Your good point was marred by the term "debt hostage crisis".
2/3 of all Federal Spending is on entitlements so those in Congress worried about runaway entitlement spending were correct to emphasize the runaway problems with the programs.
Of course, the Republicans then later wrong-footed the Democrats by agreeing to the sequester to trim Federal spending. Dems thought Republicans wouldn't agree to reduced defense spending but they did because the Federal Government has become such a monster.
Per the graph below, the sequester slightly helped return Federal Spending closer to the roughly 20% of GDP after Big Government politicos like Obama, Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Lizzie Fauxchahontas Warren blew it open:
The only material threat that the debt poses is if bond investors think there's a possibility that we default. The Tea Party's "let the government default" kabuki theater of several years ago gave real credence to the idea that we may in fact have political leaders who are stupid enough to let our government default on it's debt. Thankfully Boehner, Cantor, and the rest of the GOP leadership were aware of just how disastrous that would have been, and did everything they could to squash that movement. Unfortunately the Tea Party fad has not died out, and there is still reason for legitimate concern about our creditworthiness as long as they hold any political influence.
But while a certain faction of the GOP has almost single-handedly destroyed the credit of our country, the Republicans are the only one who are even willing to address the large entitlement elephant in the room. Most of the Presidential candidates have bit the bullet and proposed unsavory reforms that will reign in SS and Medicare spending in the long-term. You will see no such proposals from the dems, who have no desire to take on the AARP behemoth and are turning a blind eye to our ever growing national debt.
There is so much stupid in this I have no clue where to start. The Fed govt would never have defaulted...they still take money in. Huge amounts. It would have just gone first to paying on the bonds before it went to all the other govt spending programs. Nobody with an IQ over 50 thought the govt was close to default.
To not understand that is just sad...leaving the rest of that post nothing but typing diarrhea...
Yes, that explains why Standard and Poor's downgraded our credit rating to AA+ immediately following the debt hostage crisis. Do you have the slightest understanding of how credit risk works?
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Here's one at least with 2013 (Federal Spending increasing as a % of GDP from 2012 to 2013):