Notice A Trend?

The debt ceiling is simply raised in order to pay bills for which money has already been spent.  Think of it as your credit card statement.  You charged things on your card last month and now that the bill has come you need to raise your personal debt ceiling to pay that bill. 

Until Obama took office I'd venture to say that few of us had ever heard of the debt ceiling.  During his presidency the Republicans have used it to hold the system hostage, threatening to not pay our bills unless they get the spending cuts they want.  In other words, they're willing to hurt our collective national credit rating for political purposes.