1 and 3 seem contradictory. After all today's congress is FAR more polarized then the Gingrich Congress.
As it currently is the most conservative democrat is more liberal then the most liberal republican. Which I don't believe has ever actually happened. Ever.
That said too... I think all the debt ceiling arguments have done is pull problems from the future forward... when they have less problems.
The USA lost it's AAA Credit rating... but that's proven to be completely pointless, since in these economic times, the US is more trusted then any of the real AAA countries.
One only needs to look at the US Bond Yields to see it's still of triple A status.
http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/08/05/aaa-downgrade-treasuries/
Since then US Bond yields have dropped even more. It's currently 1.5%.
