Every few years in Congress there is a purely political battle over the debt ceiling. We're supposed to be horrified and worried that the US might default on some of its debt. Some commentators will insist the US has never defaulted, and that default be a disaster.

(That's wrong, by the way. The US has defaulted before.) 

But these debt ceiling debates always end the same way. Congress ends up increasing the debt ceiling and the US's national debt continues to spiral upward. 

During all the theatrics over the debt ceiling, however, many strange ideas are put forward as a supposed means to avoiding a shutdown.