[Grizzly]

Basically, CGPgrey did a rather neat video on how the debts and such work in the US. It's in here.

[Scourge of Ages]

Grey! If there's anybody who can explain this mess in a way that I would actually understand (and more importantly, care about), it's him. I'll watch it later.

[General Battuta]

Does this video boil down to 'the president does not actually have much unilateral power over the budget, the debt ceiling is an arbitrary legislative symbol that has been raised zillions of times before but is only now a political playing piece to be used in games of brinksmanship, it has nothing to do with the 'fiscal cliff''

i'm guessing yes?

[Grizzly]

Yes.
The part that the president plays in the budget (no part at all, he can only request) was new for me though.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, the American president actually has surprisingly limited powers given how much he's talked up as the Leader of the Free World, etc.

[Dragon]

That holds true for most presidents (and IIRC, for The British Queen). One of the most important jobs of any president is, AFAIK, foreign politics. That's why POTUS is so important in the world despite having really limited power in the US itself. Thus he might be the "Leader of the Free World" while at the same time not having that much influence on his own backyard.

[SypheDMar]

I thought everyone (here) knew that by now. 

[Dilmah G]

I'm currently reading It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, which talks a lot about this (and I'd highly recommend it!). The US political system is not designed for the kind of adversarial politics that guys like Newt Gringrich have kickstarted and made mainstream in the current climate.

What this whole debt ceiling crisis puts in the spotlight is just how freaking crazy the Republican Party is. The brinksmanship they exhibited in this whole debacle in for some time rather seeing the country go into insolvency than raise taxes is a testament to just how extreme their politics has gotten. I'd feel sorry for you guys, but at the rate Australian politics is going, it's likely we'll be together on the same sinking ship.

Also Dragon, in the UK the PM actually does have quite a bit of power, or at least, their party does. Their equivalent to the Senate (the House of Lords) has been disempowered to the point where the UK has basically a unicameral system, and whoever holds the majority in the House of Commons is basically able to do what they like, to my knowledge.