Until recently, the U.S. government’s debt ceiling didn’t get a lot of publicity; it has been raised without fanfare 70 times in the last 50 years. Now that it’s front page news, some analysts are wondering why we have such a thing in the first place. An article in the August 1 issue of The New Yorker notes that there is no provision for a debt limit in the U.S. Constitution, and among democratic nations, only the U.S. and Denmark have a mandated debt limit that has to be raised by their legislative bodies.
The debt ceiling was adopted in 1917, at a time when the government budget was created and controlled by the U.S. President. The ceiling gave Congress a small measure of control over the President’s spending habits, but in the years since, we have evolved to a system where Congress authorizes government spending in line item detail. The New Yorker article notes that the only reason we need to lift the debt ceiling, after all, is to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized. Ironically, with the debt ceiling raised at the last moment, the President could have greater authority. President Obama may be the one to decide which bills get paid and which do not, with no input from Congress.