Factbox-U.S. debt ceiling: A straightforward vote is not the usual path
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[February 02, 2023]
(Reuters) - The White House wants Congress to raise U.S.
borrowing limits without conditions, but if years past are any
indication, spending cuts and other legislation will factor in the
haggling that usually accompanies the effort.
CREATION OF THE DEBT CEILING
Congress has always placed restrictions on federal debt as part of its
U.S. Constitutional authority over tax and spending matters.
Before World War One, Congress often handled debt sales directly, but
that became impractical as federal borrowing increased in the years that
followed.
Congress opted in 1939 to impose an overall limit of $45 billion on
government borrowing activity.
Because spending has often outrun tax revenue, Congress has had to raise
that limit 102 times since the end of World War Two.
Big spending increases - such as the $6 trillion in COVID-19 relief
Congress approved in 2020 and 2021 - lead to more debt and more frequent
debt-ceiling increases.
Most other developed countries do not impose such limits on government
borrowing.
TERMS APPLY
Congress has often imposed conditions on these debt-ceiling hikes, or
paired them with other tax and spending activity.
Congress delayed a debt-ceiling hike in 1957 to pressure the Pentagon to
operate more efficiently, and linked increases to expanded Social
Security benefits in the early 1970s. Lawmakers in that era also tried
unsuccessfully to use the debt as leverage to stop U.S. bombing of
Cambodia.
Since 1978, only 26 of 60 debt-ceiling hikes have been passed on their
own.
Often they have passed with other budget and spending measures - a
practice that allows lawmakers to negotiate on several fiscal matters at
once and shields them somewhat from the political pain of approving an
increase in debt.
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Congress paired a debt-ceiling hike with broader bipartisan spending
packages in 2018 and 2019, for example. The recession-fighting
stimulus package of 2009 also included a debt-ceiling hike.
The House of Representatives automatically raised the debt ceiling
10 times between 1980 and 2010 when it passed its annual budget
plan, under a rule named after Democratic leader Dick Gephardt.
This process does not always go smoothly.
Republicans unsuccessfully tried to pair a debt-ceiling hike with
spending cuts in 1995 and 1996, leading to two partial government
shutdowns. A similar showdown in 2011 brought the United States to
the brink of default and prompted a first-ever downgrade of the
United States' top-notch credit rating.
SUSPENDING IT
Congress voted seven times between 2013 and 2019 to suspend the debt
ceiling for a set amount of time, rather than raising it. This
reduced political pain by allowing lawmakers to avoid signing off on
a specific amount of additional debt, and provided some certainty by
letting them know when they would have to tackle the problem again.
2011 SPENDING RESTRAINTS
The 2011 showdown ended with the Budget Control Act, which imposed
spending caps for the following 10 years that Congress eventually
diluted.
That deal also reversed the usual calculus by allowing the president
to raise the debt ceiling unless a majority of Congress voted
against it, which they conveniently failed to do.
Source: Congressional Research Service
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard
Goller)
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