John the Orange offers up a strange allegory:

As US hits debt limit, business group urges Congress to raise it

As the U.S. hit its debt limit on Friday, a leading business group urged Congress to act quickly to raise it to avoid damaging the economy.

The Business Roundtable sent a letter to House and Senate leaders Thursday night warning that “urgent action is required” to prevent a potential default as the Treasury Department was set to begin so-called extraordinary measures to extend the nation’s borrowing authority.

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On Saturday, the debt limit will reset to the current U.S. debt, which is about $17.3 trillion.

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House Republicans are looking for what they say are modest concessions in exchange for voting to raise the debt limit, but President Barack Obama has insisted that he will not negotiate over an increase.

“I think that we’re still looking for the pieces to this puzzle, but listen, we do not want to default on our debt, and we’re not going to default on our debt,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday.

He emphasized that House Republicans wanted something in exchange for agreeing to raise the limit. But Boehner said it was unclear what would be enough to get many Republicans, who oppose more federal borrowing, to agree to raise the limit.

“Mother Theresa is a saint now, but, you know, if the Congress wanted to make her a saint and attach that to the debt ceiling, we probably couldn’t get (the necessary) 218 Republican votes,” he said.