Despite the political grandstanding of the past two weeks, congressional leaders have once again overlooked the ticking time bomb of the debt ceiling. As Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned this month, unless Congress raises the debt ceiling before the August recess, the United States will default on its debts at the beginning of September, prior to the start of the new session.

The United States is on a fiscal collision course. Decades of unfunded entitlement promises, demographic changes, and a dysfunctional political process combine to drive the federal budget deep into debt. This poses a threat to the American economy and prosperity. According to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, public debt is projected to approach 100 percent of gross domestic product in the next 10 years and will continue growing on a rapid upward trajectory from that point.

As the House considers the fifth discretionary spending limits bill, the Investing for the People Act, since the Budget Control Act of 2011, it is worth taking a serious look at what that debate means in the scheme of federal spending. It matters but is far from the true root of our fiscal insanity. Nondefense discretionary spending is projected to represent about 15 percent of federal spending in 2019, or about $669 billion out of the expected budget of over $4.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Congress could eliminate all nondefense discretionary spending and still run a large budget deficit of more than $300 billion.

Since Democrats took control of the House, there has been no shortage of bad legislation that has either been pushed through the lower chamber or advocated by progressives. Democrats were set to consider yet another “caps deal” to bust its own spending maximums set under the Budget Control Act. The Democratic leadership has pulled it from the schedule as progressives and moderates in the party disagree on spending levels. Progressives, of course, want more spending on domestic programs.