Although the action on Capitol Hill appears has certainly been frenzied, the stock market continues to yawn. Yes, it is true that the intraday volatility did pick up in earnest on Tuesday as the algos pushed and pulled the major indices in a rather violent fashion after each and every headline, comment, and/or rumor out of Washington. But with the S&P 500 still just a stone's throw from its recent all-time high, traders don't appear to be worried.

The chart below shows the closing prices of the S&P 500 on a weekly basis since the first quarter of 2009. The first thing to notice is the most recent price resides in the upper right hand corner of the graph, which, in and of itself is a good thing.

S&P 500 Weekly

The second takeaway from this chart is the fact that the current reaction in the S&P 500 is nothing compared to the last two times Congress acted like infants in front of the entire world. Note that the 2011 edition of the budget battle created a very negative reaction in stocks. In fact, the S&P 500 fell nearly 20 percent during the ordeal. However, to be fair, the crisis in Europe also lent a hand in terms of the overall bearish mood.

The next oval on the chart shows how the market reacted to all the drama and worry over the "sequester." While not nearly as nasty as the first go-round, the 2012 encounter with the games congressional leaders play still resulted in a correction of almost 8 percent on the S&P 500.

Too Cavalier?

However, this time around the S&P has barely budged as the S&P shed just 4 percent from the most recent high. In short, it appears that traders have seen this movie before and know that the hero doesn't die in the end.

At the same time though, the bears have been suggesting that this time it may indeed be different. This time the Tea Party has cover. This time, the Democrats feel like they are #winning. And this time Boehner may have lost control. Thus, the glass-is-half-empty crowd suggests that investors may be entirely too complacent about what is about to happen.

In short, the bear camp reminds us that a default by the U.S. government would be insert-your-favorite-adjective-here.

The Real Deadline

But... As you might suspect, the team on the other sideline have a different view. While no one disputes the fact that the U.S. government defaulting on its debt would be a disaster of epic proportions for financial assets. However, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the real deadline for when the U.S. runs out of money isn't October 17. No, the BPC says the serious financial problems for Treasury start to show up between October 22 and November 1.

The BPC says that the U.S. Treasury currently has about $40 billion in total cash on hand and available extraordinary measures and declining fast. BPC notes that the U.S. faces debt rollovers of $120 billion on October 17 and $93 billion on October 24. Then there are $12 billion of Social Security benefits due on October 23, $6 billion on interest due on October 31, and over $55 billion in major payments is due on November 1.

Yet, it is also worth noting that the Quarterly Tax Revenues will start coming into the Treasury coffers shortly.

But A Deal Would Definitely Be Helpful

The bottom line is each day that passes without a deal makes the situation worse.

Just yesterday, the U.S. was "Fitchslapped" as the 'AAA" rating of the U.S. was put on Ratings Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. Fitch noted that although they continue to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default.

Fitch summed up the situation nicely with the following: "The prolonged negotiations over raising the debt ceiling (following the episode in August 2011) risks undermining confidence in the role of the U.S. dollar as the preeminent global reserve currency, by casting doubt over the full faith and credit of the U.S. This "faith" is a key reason why the U.S. 'AAA' rating can tolerate a substantially higher level of public debt than other 'AAA' sovereigns."

While this may qualify as restating the obvious, the key is that it would be better for the credit rating of the country, the economy itself, and just about every American if lawmakers could just cut to the chase and get a darn deal done.

Turning to this morning... The song remains the same this morning as all eyes remain fixed on Washington. The latest in the drama is the House did not have the votes to bring a new bill to the floor and thus, Senators Reid and McConnell are back to the negotiating table trying to hammer out a deal. The question, of course, is if any measure passed by the Senate can win approval in the House. Stock traders remain optimistic that a deal is close at hand as futures are pointing to a higher open on Wall Street.

Positions in stocks mentioned: none

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