Time is of the essence when it comes to our nation’s financial health, but you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the House and Senate schedule this week.

The debt-limit negotiations led by our president hit more roadblocks this week as the “big eight” lawmakers made trips to the White House almost daily to meet with the president and his team on the looming debt-limit crisis.

The end of the federal government’s fiscal year comes next Friday, and once again Congress is scrambling to fund all our agencies without suffering a government shutdown. The speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, learned Wednesday that this is not always as easy as it might seem.

This week the Senate will be debating the second of the 12 appropriations bills that together make up the full funding of our federal government.

Washington -- A debt crisis is a terrible thing to waste in a presidential election season, and Democrats and Republicans alike are responding on cue.

Though President Obama has run rings about the Republican Party in the debt-ceiling debate, that party can yet emerge victorious, if it will stick to its guns.

They were called "terrorists," "fanatics" and "unpatriotic."