A brief history of debt ceiling crises and the political chaos they've unleashed

With the House GOP and President Joe Biden locked in a struggle over the debt limit, it's dark times in the U.S. Capitol. Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

There have been numerous fiscal crises in the United States where Congress has either failed to pass a budget on time or there were doubts that the federal debt ceiling would be raised, which could cause the U.S. to default on its debt.

These two kinds of crises can sometimes play out at the same time. A federal budget was not adopted in time, for example, and there were threats of not increasing the debt ceiling.