Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.

As early as June 1, the U.S. government could run out of money and, for the first time in its history, default. As the international community has expressed grave concerns over it, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause an "economic catastrophe" and that debt ceiling negotiations should not take place "with a gun to the head of the American people." Reuters called it the "scary white swan" for the U.S. economy.

Even as the debt crisis spirals towards a point of no return, the Democrats and Republicans have dug deep against each other and show no sign of resolving the issue. Republicans, having won control of the House of Representatives, have put up a show of power by pushing through the "Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023." House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is risking U.S. defaulting for the first time to force the Democrats to swallow massive cuts to federal spending. U.S. President Joe Biden, on the other hand, accused Republicans of holding the debt ceiling hostage to get him to agree to "draconian cuts." He said the last thing the United States needs is "a manufactured crisis." "That's what this is: A manufactured crisis from beginning to end," Biden said.

"It's a political game of chicken, where the stakes are as high as the consequences are avoidable," BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher wrote.

This game of chicken has been playing out for nearly a century. Since 1917, the U.S. debt ceiling has increased by more than 2300 times from $13.5 billion to $31.4 trillion. The United States has always been a "leader" of this borrow-and-spend practice and Washington has been heavily criticized for it. But the U.S. government has proven to be incorrigible.

This massive debt has also become a part of the political arsenal used by both the Democrats and the Republicans. The party in power takes advantage of it to purchase the votes and loyalties of its constituents with tuition loan pardons, corporate subsidies and social welfare. It puts up an appearance of American prosperity, piling debt upon debt. The party in opposition would labor mightily to paint it as reckless spending, criticizing them as ineffectual and unable to govern, or even refusing to raise the ceiling, to stir up voters for the next election.

Every time, it's rinse and repeat. Only, the amount of debt is shooting through the roof.

What's more worrisome is that the U.S. government has been injecting massive amount of the dollars by buying up debt, making the inflation skyrocket to the highest point in 41 years. Overspending and uncontrollable debt are pushing the U.S. toward the edge of a cliff. If Congress doesn't act, America would default for the first time in history. It'd mean the collapse of America and the dollar's credit around the world, sending an apocalyptic financial tsunami across the world.

As an article published by South China Morning Post points out, for a long time, dollar's reserve currency status made U.S. debt "safe assets." But now, that stability and security have cracked, and the world is coming to the realization that there's a great risk. The Washington Post described the U.S. Congress as "dysfunctional, bifurcated and ineffectual." It's not just the Congress. It's the entire U.S. political class that's tanking the world.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)