The average consumer may feel far removed from the heated debates on Capitol Hill concerning the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which the nation could crash into one week from today.

But the truth is, American households are dealing with plenty of their own red ink, and the debt issues that lawmakers must solve to get the nation back on track are similar to those facing consumers.

According to Federal Reserve data, total household debt in this nation at the end of 2010 amounted to about $13.4 trillion, which means consumers owe almost as much as the federal government.

"The conclusion to be drawn is that the government, as well as the U.S. population, is addicted to debt," said Eleanor Blayney, a consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in Washington, D.C.

The federal debt ceiling is best compared to a consumer credit card limit. Congress has authorized the government to spend over and above the credit limit, which is the same as a consumer who spends now and worries about the bill later.

But when it comes to accumulating and paying off debt, consumers face challenges that can't be compared to the government.

Credit card companies and other lenders are not inclined to solve consumer overspending by raising the credit limit. While some card issuers may raise limits in some cases for their best customers, most will simply cancel the card or close the account and demand full payment.

According to the consumer website Creditcards.com, average credit card debt per household with credit card debt in the United States is $14,687. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars in household wealth was wiped out during the financial crisis of 2008.

The Federal Reserve earlier this year conducted a survey of U.S. households that showed the median net worth of households fell from $125,000 in 2007 to $96,000 in 2009.

"The federal government isn't in hock to MasterCard -- rather, to the millions of individuals, pension funds and foreign central banks who have loaned us money," said Terry Connelly, dean emeritus of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

The enforcers of the nation's credit limit are the rating agencies that demand that we raise our debt limit.

"But they want a cut in our spending pattern along with it or they will downgrade our credit rating -- just like a consumer will get his credit score downgraded if he or she gets in trouble with MasterCard for overspending the credit limit," Mr. Connelly said.

Next Tuesday, the Treasury Department estimates that it will run out of extraordinary measures to avoid hitting the statutory debt limit. If Congress does not act to raise the amount that the government can borrow, the nation will have no choice but to stop making payments on its debt and other legal obligations.

President Barack Obama and both houses of Congress are engaged in tense negotiations to raise the ceiling, while also hoping to agree on a way to reduce the staggering national debt before the deadline.

"Both consumer and government debt are a byproduct of many years of bad financial habits and easy credit," said Greg McBride, a senior analyst for Bankrate, a leading online personal finance website based in North Palm Beach, Fla.

"It caught up with households first. Over the last several years, many households have had to make some difficult decisions.

"They've had to cut spending, take on second jobs and scale back their lifestyles. We're at a point where Uncle Sam needs to do the same, but [lawmakers] can't seem to see eye-to-eye."

If the government does not rein in the red ink, ultimately foreign investors will command higher interest rates, which would be a further drag on the U.S. economy. If no agreement to raise the debt ceiling is reached, a default on government debt could lead to an ugly economic scenario.

As a nation, we've been down this road before, according to Chris Mayer, managing editor at Agora Financial in Baltimore. Agora Financial has published three international best-sellers on the national debt and in 2008 produced the documentary IOUSA, which highlighted the staggering size of the U.S. debt.

Mr. Mayer said the United States had defaulted on its debt five times already.

"The first time was way back in 1779," he said. "This is where the phrase 'not worth a Continental' comes from. The United States was unable to redeem currency issued during the war.

"It also borrowed to finance the Revolutionary War. It defaulted on this debt in 1782 and essentially repudiated it by 1790. The United States defaulted again in 1862, failing to redeem dollars for gold issued during the Civil War."

The most famous default, he said, happened during the Great Depression in 1934, when the United States defaulted on debt issued to finance World War I. And in 1979, there were defaults on small bills when interest was not paid on time, which led to a class-action lawsuit.

"With the exception of 1979, which was mostly due to administrative confusion, the U.S. simply ran out of money each time," Mr. Mayer said. "The end result was the dollar had to be revalued, meaning it lost a significant amount of purchasing power.

"Think about it in the broad sense. Prior to 1933, the dollar was defined as 1/20th an ounce of gold. Put another way, five dollars meant one ounce of gold. Today, one ounce of gold will set you back $1,600.

"I can think of no more vivid example of the destruction of the dollar's purchasing power than this."

Steve Smith, a portfolio manager for Covestor in Cochranville in southeastern Pennsylvania, said consumer debt had declined gradually over the last three years, but that the federal debt exploded by about $1.5 trillion in each of those three years.

Stimulus funding and bailouts meant to infuse money into the flailing economy and stave off an even deeper recession were a part of that, although the politicians continue to argue about the value of those.

"The consumer is already ahead of the government in trying to end its addiction to debt by not borrowing as much as they used to," Mr. Smith said. "But while consumer debt is going down, the federal debt is continuing to march upward."

The U.S. government has an advantage over individuals in that it can print money and raise taxes, while individuals can't. But the two share some similarities, said Nancy Skeans, a partner at Schneider Downs Wealth Management in the Strip District.

"Individuals have gotten into a lot of debt trouble by borrowing without a plan to repay it in the future," Ms. Skeans said. "That is also why we struggle as a national economy."