Whatever happened to the debt ceiling?

[Lyin' Steve]

I remember two or three years ago it seemed like every three months we'd have another big debate over the debt ceiling.  The GOP would claim Obama wanted to spend MORE money and they needed to put a stop to it, the democrats would point out that the debt ceiling was only for paying off loans we'd already taken, that we'd default if we didn't raise it, and that our credit rating suffered and our economy shook every time the republicans picked the fight.  For me it was one of those things (Scooter Libby was another) where it was very very clear that the democrats were in the right and the republicans were in the wrong.

Whatever happened to those days?  I feel like I haven't heard about the debt ceiling in forever.  Did the GOP finally come to its senses?  Did they just let the most recent opportunity to refuse to raise the damn thing pass?  Did Pelosi sneak in a clause to automatically raise it whenever necessary?

[Indy Texas]

The Tea Party faction in Congress has been completely discredited as of late.

Paul Ryan largely sidelined them after becoming Speaker. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Ted Cruz has returned even more hated and embarrassed by his disaster of a presidential campaign.

And it's an election year. And the Republicans don't exactly feel good about the way things are going.

A debt ceiling fight would just be pouring some more gasoline on an uncontrolled dumpster fire at this point.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The most recent "limit suspension" goes through March 15, 2017. http://www.rollcall.com/news/obama_signs_budget_deal_and_debt_limit_suspension-244552-1.html

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke.  It's like if you hit your credit limit and you could just keep raising your own limit while only paying the minimums.

[SWE]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke. 

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt limit.

[RI]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke. 

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt repayment limit.

FTFY

[DemPGH]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke. 

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt limit.

lol, okay, if you're old enough to have a credit card, get one, max it out, call the credit card company, and tell them you want to up your credit! Go ahead. Tell us what they say.

[Boston Bread]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke. 

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt limit.

lol, okay, if you're old enough to have a credit card, get one, max it out, call the credit card company, and tell them you want to up your credit! Go ahead. Tell us what they say.

What? The government doesn't run on credit cards. As Trump said, they can just print more money.

[SWE]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke. 

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt limit.

lol, okay, if you're old enough to have a credit card, get one, max it out, call the credit card company, and tell them you want to up your credit! Go ahead. Tell us what they say.

A better analogy for the debt ceiling would be not maxing out your credit card, and the calling the company and telling them you have the money to pay them back, but that you refuse to ever pay them back because you reached your personal debt ceiling.

Of course, I'm kind of biased on this issue since I like that the world isn't currently in an unprecedented depression.

[DemPGH]

They just keep raising it. It's a joke.  

Indeed, it is a joke that a country would impose upon itself an arbitrary debt limit.

lol, okay, if you're old enough to have a credit card, get one, max it out, call the credit card company, and tell them you want to up your credit! Go ahead. Tell us what they say.

What? The government doesn't run on credit cards. As Trump said, they can just print more money.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/11/news/economy/donald-trump-print-money/index.html?section=money_topstories

He's not talking about physically printing more working capital. In concert with stopping the reckless spending on wars and so forth, he's talking about finding ways to fund the government in the meantime so it would avoid defaulting. Which, to his point, certainly does not make the process sound or desirable, I don't at all think he's suggesting that. He's talking about avoiding a worst case scenario should the current course continue.

[Boston Bread]

Not desirable, as you said, but you could just raise the debt ceiling and avoid the whole mess. It's not like anything bad happened the last 1000 times it happened.

[Bojack Horseman]

Not raising the debt ceiling would cause an automatic default, resulting in a worldwide meltdown. That's why I say that if and when Democrats take back Congress, we ought to abolish the debt ceiling altogether, so that the children can't try to burn the place down again.

[Mr. Reactionary]

What? The government doesn't run on credit cards. As Trump said, they can just print more money.

[Boston Bread]

What? The government doesn't run on credit cards. As Trump said, they can just print more money.

Printing money only is what would happen if congress refused to raise the debt ceiling. If it is raised that would avoid the situation you are describing.

[Zioneer]

Literally no one is ever going to actually call the debt in, because that would crash the world economy since the US is such a major economic player. The fuss about the debt ceiling is pointless, and hampers the US's ability to have a stable economy.

[dead0man]

I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but there HAS to be a limit, right?

[SteveRogers]

I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but there HAS to be a limit, right?

On the debt ceiling? No. If you think the U.S. should take on less debt going forward, the correct solution is to either cut spending or raise more revenue going forward. Refusing to pay the bills we've already incurred is not a legitimate solution.

[SWE]

I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but there HAS to be a limit, right?

Not on the bills we've already agreed to pay, no.

[IceAgeComing]

Literally no one is ever going to actually call the debt in, because that would crash the world economy since the US is such a major economic player. The fuss about the debt ceiling is pointless, and hampers the US's ability to have a stable economy.

there's also the fact that most people who "own" US debt actually lose money to do so; they willingly accept the negative return rate of TBs because they see it as by far the most secure place in the world to keep their money to the point where they are willing to lose money just to hold .  America loses that as soon as the debt limit is not increased; because it becomes less secure to store money in TBs and that's a lot worse for America than not raising the debt ceiling (a dumb idea that no other country in the world has) and it would probably lead to high debt in the long term since investors would start to want to gain money to factor in even the very small "risk" that would exist.

[Angrie]

Whatever happened to those days?  I feel like I haven't heard about the debt ceiling in forever.  Did the GOP finally come to its senses?  Did they just let the most recent opportunity to refuse to raise the damn thing pass?  Did Pelosi sneak in a clause to automatically raise it whenever necessary?

Ted Cruz decided to run for President, and so he had to focus on traveling around to states rather than to grandstanding and gumming up the works in the Senate. Also, he was distracted by Trump.

However, now that this is over, we could potentially start hearing about the debt limit again. That will be especially the case if Hillary wins but the Republicans maintain control of the House or Senate.