It's really important for anyone who gets dragged into a debate on the debt ceiling to understand what it is -- and what it is not.
Article I. sec. 8 of the Constitution requires the Congress to authorize any borrowing of money on the credit of the United States. Until 1917, every bond issue that the Treasury sold was individually author…
It's really important for anyone who gets dragged into a debate on the debt ceiling to understand what it is -- and what it is not.
Article I. sec. 8 of the Constitution requires the Congress to authorize any borrowing of money on the credit of the United States. Until 1917, every bond issue that the Treasury sold was individually authorized by Congress in a specific law. That's how the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, among other emergencies, were financed: the Congress provided the funds through a bond issue, appropriated the funds by law, and the Treasury spent the funds as directed. With the coming of World War I, the President and Congress realized that the demand for war financing would outpace the Congress's ability to pass individual bond issues in a timely manner, so it set a limit to which the Treasury could borrow, and the debt ceiling came into being. The constitutional requirement of Article I sec. 8 was still met, because Congress was still approving all debt; it was just approving some of it in advance, and letting the Treasury draw on it as appropriated.
"As appropriated" is crucial here: the Congress has already approved the expenditures that the Treasury makes through the appropriations process, and as expenditures approach the debt ceiling, the Congress has to raise it TO MAKE THE EXPENDITURES THAT IT HAS ALREADY DECIDED TO MAKE. The Administration is not spending money by executive fiat, it's spending money as required by law, and the Congress has the responsibility to approve borrowing to support the expenditures that it has already mandated. There's no way to borrow money without the approval of Congress under Article I sec. 8. That's why the debt ceiling can't serve as an instrument of budget control, and why playing politics with the debt ceiling is so exceptionally wrong and destructive.
It is also important to remember that from 1979 until 1995 the debt ceiling was automatically raised with the passage of the budget. It was Newt Gingrich (again) who turned it into a lethal weapon of partisan warfare.
Like many other issues the media fosters the perception that raising the debt ceiling is fiscally irresponsible when in fact raising it is the only responsible choice to make. The media fosters the perception that there is a "rational choice" at the bottom of the decision that both sides are fighting over. And, of course, the media focus is on "which side will blink first" not on the actual consequences of failing to act responsibly.
In the end the debt ceiling always gets raised (because it MUST be raised) but only after one side or the other has inflicted enough political pain on the other (or on themselves) ending the manufactured crisis.
It's really important for anyone who gets dragged into a debate on the debt ceiling to understand what it is -- and what it is not.
Article I. sec. 8 of the Constitution requires the Congress to authorize any borrowing of money on the credit of the United States. Until 1917, every bond issue that the Treasury sold was individually authorized by Congress in a specific law. That's how the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, among other emergencies, were financed: the Congress provided the funds through a bond issue, appropriated the funds by law, and the Treasury spent the funds as directed. With the coming of World War I, the President and Congress realized that the demand for war financing would outpace the Congress's ability to pass individual bond issues in a timely manner, so it set a limit to which the Treasury could borrow, and the debt ceiling came into being. The constitutional requirement of Article I sec. 8 was still met, because Congress was still approving all debt; it was just approving some of it in advance, and letting the Treasury draw on it as appropriated.
"As appropriated" is crucial here: the Congress has already approved the expenditures that the Treasury makes through the appropriations process, and as expenditures approach the debt ceiling, the Congress has to raise it TO MAKE THE EXPENDITURES THAT IT HAS ALREADY DECIDED TO MAKE. The Administration is not spending money by executive fiat, it's spending money as required by law, and the Congress has the responsibility to approve borrowing to support the expenditures that it has already mandated. There's no way to borrow money without the approval of Congress under Article I sec. 8. That's why the debt ceiling can't serve as an instrument of budget control, and why playing politics with the debt ceiling is so exceptionally wrong and destructive.
It is also important to remember that from 1979 until 1995 the debt ceiling was automatically raised with the passage of the budget. It was Newt Gingrich (again) who turned it into a lethal weapon of partisan warfare.
Like many other issues the media fosters the perception that raising the debt ceiling is fiscally irresponsible when in fact raising it is the only responsible choice to make. The media fosters the perception that there is a "rational choice" at the bottom of the decision that both sides are fighting over. And, of course, the media focus is on "which side will blink first" not on the actual consequences of failing to act responsibly.
In the end the debt ceiling always gets raised (because it MUST be raised) but only after one side or the other has inflicted enough political pain on the other (or on themselves) ending the manufactured crisis.