With a week to go until Congress returns from recess, Democrats and Republicans are hardening their positions on the debt ceiling. GOP leaders, with a growing number of lawmakers behind them, suggest they might let the federal government hit that cap unless their demands for spending cuts are met. And the White House is employing more dire rhetoric to explain why that can't happen.

"It would be terrible folly to play games with this," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. Asked about GOP lawmakers who suggest the economic impact of failing to raise the ceiling would not be as bad as the administration claims, Carney said those skeptics are "dead wrong."

The heightened warnings from both sides presage yet another drag-out budget fight to the last possible second, or beyond, once Congress returns from its two-week break. The federal government is expected to hit the $14.3 trillion debt limit by mid-May. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner could use a handful of financial tricks to keep things running until July or so, but once those options are exhausted Congress will either have to pass a deal or face what the Obama administration says will be a devastating default on U.S. obligations...