The origins of the federal government’s statutory debt limit can be traced back to 1917. Congress has voted to increase the limit numerous times over the decades, including 10 times since 2001.
The present debt limit is $14.3 trillion, and total outstanding debt subject to the limit currently stands at just under $14 trillion. Given that policymakers don’t have the will to immediately cut spending enough to keep the debt from hitting the limit, a political battle over raising the limit is unfolding.
The Obama administration is basically warning that congressional (i.e., Republican) intransigence could potentially lead to the federal government defaulting on the debt. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned Congress that failing to increase the debt limit would result in “catastrophic economic consequences that would last for decades.” The president’s chief economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, warned Congress not to “play chicken” over whether to raise the debt limit as failing to do so would cause “a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008…This is not a game.
The debt ceiling is not something to toy with.”
Back in 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama apparently wasn’t concerned about the “catastrophic economic consequences” when he voted against raising the debt limit. ABC News recalls Obama’s stated reason for his “no” vote:
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Rest here
The present debt limit is $14.3 trillion, and total outstanding debt subject to the limit currently stands at just under $14 trillion. Given that policymakers don’t have the will to immediately cut spending enough to keep the debt from hitting the limit, a political battle over raising the limit is unfolding.
The Obama administration is basically warning that congressional (i.e., Republican) intransigence could potentially lead to the federal government defaulting on the debt. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned Congress that failing to increase the debt limit would result in “catastrophic economic consequences that would last for decades.” The president’s chief economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, warned Congress not to “play chicken” over whether to raise the debt limit as failing to do so would cause “a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008…This is not a game.
The debt ceiling is not something to toy with.”
Back in 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama apparently wasn’t concerned about the “catastrophic economic consequences” when he voted against raising the debt limit. ABC News recalls Obama’s stated reason for his “no” vote:
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Rest here
