Why must the debt ceiling must be raised?

Why, in order to go bankrupt, but of course!

But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6)

 

But then again, the 2009 Halloween Party was not a total secret from the public.

"Well, in out country," said Alice, still panting a little,

"you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. 

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. 

If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

(Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 2)