How big of a deal...

...is raising the debt limit, anyway? I can't tell.

Bruce Bartlett writes in his blog (my emphasis):

Personally, I think Republicans are playing not just with fire, but the financial equivalent of nuclear weapons. Perhaps at one time when the federal debt was owned entirely by Americans we could afford to take a chance on debt default because the consequences would only be internal. But today, more than half of the privately held public debt is owed to foreigners; the Chinese alone own more than $1.1 trillion of Treasury securities. Moreover, many countries use Treasury securities as backing for their own currencies. Thus the impact of default would be felt internationally, disrupting finances and economic policies throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America.

And in the very same piece:

People smarter than I am tell me that the Treasury has an almost infinite ability to avoid a debt crisis.