When Mayor Nutter admitted that “it’ll be a long time before we get back to revenue levels pre-2008” last week on C-SPAN’s NEWSMAKERS, he may have been considering that Congress is playing ball-tap with each other as they debate whether they should raise the nation’s the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The U.S. can pay back about only half that number.

The debt ceiling was implemented in 1917 and initially set up to help lawmakers control spending. But the system doesn’t really do its job. Lawmakers have raised it 10 times since 2001 and 74 times since March 1962.

That’s why Sen. Pat Toomey, along with presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and other Republicans, is ignoring the consequences of defaulting on the government’s debt. They want to see how much states plan to spend before deciding to raise the debt ceiling again, according to Bloomberg News.

And here in Philadelphia, people will feel the fiscal effects if the ceiling isn’t raised. The city is still struggling to climb out of recession and those living in poverty and just above the poverty line would be hardest hit if the U.S. does default on its debt and cannot pay it back.

“People will be perceived as greater risks, and that will translate to higher interest rates,”George Evans, investment analyst for the local Marshall Investment Group, tells PW.

Which means cars, homes and other pricey purchases will be much more costly. So will paying for things with credit cards, whose rates would rise immediately. And if gas prices increase, then forget it. Recession 2.0 could be on its way. “The federal government is seen as the most credit-worthy in the wold. If they can’t pay its debt, everything here will look as a larger risk for investors,” Evans adds.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Congress that lawmakers have until Aug. 2 to come to an agreement before the government defaults.