If Congress isn't careful the debt ceiling bomb could explode.
Congress' spending limit is $31.3 trillion. Economist EJ Antoni with The Heritage Foundation says they're going to get to that limit within days, triggering 'extraordinary measures' by the Treasury Department.
"They're just bookkeeping changes which allow Treasury to stay under the limit. But it doesn't solve the problem of insolvency," Antoni said.
So why does this matter?
"The current path we're on is unsustainable and will eventually lead to disaster," Antoni explained. "That is the point where the government can't pay is bills. That's when Social Security checks stop going out. The same with Medicare."
House Republicans are promising to reign in spending when they take control in January.