It's funny how Americans debate and discuss ad nauseam almost every trivial matter of passing interest — except the most important ones.

Maybe funny isn't the best choice of words. It's tragic. Let me give you an example of a crisis closing in on us as a nation that gets no attention from the news media or the nation's politicians, even in an election year.

The crisis is the debt.

Ask yourself if a nation can continue to endlessly borrow government operating capital without disastrous consequences. That's just what we have been doing for decades, with a steep increase in red ink over the last six years. The debt has hit a surreal and unimaginable total of $18.6 trillion.

Everyone knows that someday we're going to have to answer for this fiscal irresponsibility in a big way. But do we talk about it? No. Do we debate about it? No. Does either party come up with a plan for dealing with it? No. Do journalists recognize the crisis and hold politicians accountable? No.

In fact, spending money the government doesn't have is a bipartisan scandal that robs our children and grandchildren of their inheritance and birthright as American citizens. It's one of the few things Democrats and most Republicans can agree on. The last time the subject came up in Washington, Republican House Speaker John Boehner made a deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress to put off any more brinksmanship over the debt limit until after the November 2014 election — thus ensuring the unpleasantness would not be confronted again at all until 2015.

Why is it politicians and the press want you to forget about the debt? Because they don't have any solutions, and they don't want you to realize who's at fault: them!

It's not a pretty topic, even for aspiring members of Congress, because the solution requires responsibility, not only by government officials but by a citizenry trained to depend on government for too much. Americans will need to be weaned not only off the government teats, but off the idea that government has any. It doesn't; it's all illusion.

So how do you have a national debate when neither politicians nor the media want one? This may be the $18.6 trillion question.

But we've got to try. And there's no better time for citizens to pose the question than in an election year. At some point, Washington needs to stop borrowing. It doesn't get any easier as the debt grows. In fact, it gets tougher to quit.

The reason we have a debt limit is to bring the government face to face with the reality that borrowing is not sustainable. You can't build budgets around debt. You can't make good policy around debt. You can't help people who need help using debt. You can't even defend a country successfully from real threats by relying on debt.

To some people in the media and politics, it's scarier to suggest holding the line on debt than simply increasing the debt limit automatically. They can't even imagine operating the government without borrowing about $1 trillion or more annually.

One of the many problems with this kind of thinking is that it perverts and distorts the very nature of constitutionally limited government. Think about it. The finite nature of government revenue is one of the natural barriers to what I call "unlimited government." "Unlimited government" is a synonym for totalitarianism or tyranny. It's the opposite of the kind of government established by America's founders.

When resources for government are limited, government's actions are limited. But if government can borrow all the money it wants without limit, then government's actions and intrusions into our lives and freedom become potentially unlimited.

That's why we need to put this issue back on the front burner in 2014. No matter who wins or loses this year, we will be confronting it in 2015. It behooves us all to make the right election choices this year if we want to start dealing rationally with a crisis that can bring America to its knees at any moment.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.