And in a developing story – America’s political system is possibly too broken to fix it.

As you read this, the top politicians in the country are probably slumped over a big table in The White House board room wishing President Obama will just shut up and let them all go home.

But, no. Obama is getting all “Yes, we can!” on the US debt problem, insisting party leaders quit with ideological differences and just get some business done.

According to the US National Debt clock, the country is almost $15 trillion in the red. That works out at about $46, 500 per citizen and $129,701 per taxpayer.

Politicians – and most pundits and people in the street – agree that is unsustainable but just try getting them to agree on how to fix it.

Predictably, the divide falls right along political lines. In one corner, Republicans say there should be no tax increases and the way forward is to cut government spending over a wide range of areas, many of which affect the middle class or the poor.

Democrats say highest income earners and major corporations should be taxed at higher rates, government spending can create jobs which create taxpayers, and services like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (which are health insurance options for the elderly and low income earners) should not be cut.

Obama, as the presidential middle man, believes debt can be cut without raising taxes, cutting spending, or at least not too much of either for both parties to freak out.

“I'm prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done,” Obama said on Monday. “And I expect the other side should be willing to do the same thing if they mean what they say that this is important.

“If you don't do the revenue [increases], then to get the same amount of savings, you've got to have more cuts, which means it's seniors or it's poor kids or it's medical researchers or it's our infrastructure that suffers. And that's not fair … millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more.”

Obama may be think he’s on point but Republicans have rarely been interested in what others consider “fair” over what they consider to be “right”.

“I agree with the president that the national debt limit must be raised and I’m glad that he made the case for it today,” said House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican.

“But the American people will not accept – and the House cannot pass – a bill that raises taxes on job creators.”

And so it goes, around and around. Some kind of deal has to be struck by August 2 or the US will default on its next loan repayment. That, says Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is not negotiable. Mortgage owners will know how he feels.

“If they don’t act, then we face catastrophic damage to the American economy,” he said. You mean, things really can get worse than they seem now? Apparently so.