Once again, Congress and the White House are at odds. Their fight over spending has carried over into a decision about raising the debt ceiling. If they don’t agree to put the nation in more debt by early November, then the U.S. risks missing essential payments such as interest on our bonds.

The entire episode is a wasted opportunity.

They’re focused on what to spend, when that’s already been decided.

They should be talking about how much we spend, which is what the national debt is all about.

Congress consistently votes to spend more than the government receives in taxes and fees. So, the country issues more debt every year to keep the government running.

This seems pretty basic – if you spend more than your income, the extra funds must come from somewhere. If you don’t have savings, then debt is the logical answer.

The problem is that the vote on borrowing more money is separate from the vote on how much to spend. So even though Congress passes a budget – or at least a continued spending bill – it doesn’t necessarily agree on more debt at the same time.

This mismatch of what to spend versus what to borrow leads to situations like we have today. Congress already committed to the cost of operations, but now some members are delaying the actual process of spending.

The absurd part is that the congressmen opposed to raising the debt ceiling aren’t complaining about the amount of debt we have. They’re arguing about where the funds should go.

I don’t have a problem with lawmakers raising a stink over how the government spends money. That’s part of their job.

But that fight belongs in the budget negotiations. Maybe if they spent more time on developing an actual budget – where income and spending are equal – then we wouldn’t have to worry about the debt ceiling, but that’s not the case today.

The conversation about raising the debt limit should be a foregone conclusion. They’ve already agreed to spend the money.