America’s Debt Crisis in Photos

The world is today focused on a small patch of land — known as Washington, DC.

Politics

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) speaks during a press conference following a meeting at the Republican National Committee offices July 26, 2011 in Washington, DC. During the height of battle between Congressional Republicans and the White House, Boehner introduced legislation Monday that would raise the debt ceiling in two stages and cut $3 trillion in budget cuts.

Win McNamee

The world today is focused on a small patch of land — 68.25 square miles to be precise —known as Washington, DC.

House Republicans, Senate Democrats, and an increasingly frustrated White House are racing to come up with a plan to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and prevent what U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has called an “economic calamity.”

They have until Tuesday, August 2, to work out a deal.

But as this debt drama unfolds in the capital of the world’s largest economy, many Americans have already suffered calamitous events of a more personal nature, including skyrocketing unemployment, a mortgage and housing collapse and diminishing savings in their 401K plans.

Here’s a photographic look of the drama, and the economic crisis in America that now threatens to get even worse if the various political sides in Washington, D.C. can’t agree upon a solution in time.