(Reuters) – White House and congressional negotiators are racing against the clock to forge a deficit reduction deal that would clear the way for Congress to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling by Aug. 2 and avert an unprecedented default.

The article goes on to present a timeline of the debt debate and offers solid insight into how this mess was precipitated. Perceptive onlookers could have predicted this when Republicans took control of the House in the 2010 midterm election.

But one is right to question the starting point of this timeline. As the article reports, the beginning was:

Nov. 2, 2010 – Republicans win control of the House of Representatives on a promise to scale back government spending and tackle budget deficits that have hovered at their highest levels relative to the economy since World War Two.

This American would point out that national debt has always been a matter for debate, sometimes feverish. It usually flares up before and during wars, but there has never been consensus on how much the country should maintain.