Talk:United States debt ceiling/Archive 1

Archive 1

Critique of Revisionism (usa only)

In the 1980's the usa political debates concerned if government was allowed to (1) borrow money for state emergencies and fund the balance in next year (2) keep a slush fund during a fiscal year from which gov. could pay in and out of at will (which had not been allowed).

The presentation above makes it appear as if there was always a debt ceiling and as if the use of slush funds are un-questionable. (these end up being thousands of barely traceable bank accounts per district)

Such a presentation is a false one, and is historic revisionism. (usa only, of course)

Critique of above Critique

Before the Budget Control Act of 1974, which is where the "Acceptable Amount of Public Debt" clause and mandate can be found, the funding of government was not thought to be obtained by debt. Along with Nixon unhooking the US Dollar from gold in 1972 replacing its value against a basket of IMF currencies now expanding the USA's monetary base necessarily is associated with raising the Acceptable Amount of Public Debt. This would not be necessary if not for the fact our money is created from debt in the first place.

Boyd White, 2017-02-09

2011 Debt Ceiling Crisis

I believe this section needs to be reworked. The way it reads now essentially blames Republicans and then states a bunch of results from their delay. It should be reworked to be more neutral and focus on the topic at hand. The first line of the 2013 section (Stating the increase resulting from this crisis) should be stated here instead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mouser58907 (talk • contribs) 17:33, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Do you have a specific proposal for how to reword the section? Robert McClenon (talk) 01:14, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

I will alter the second line attributing debt rating downgrade] blame to what rating agency actually said -- which is about difficulty of bridging the parties and that the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprhensive 'grand bargain'. It was not that it was delay of debt ceiling, it was how much screaming and how little policy substance. Someone else might cite a contemporary Republican source on the intent, or add something to close the narrative gap between the first sentence being a month before and the second sentence talking about the month after -- skipped other sides wants or what actually happened and how long it took, etcetera. Markbassett (talk) 13:51, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Controversy missing from Controversy section

The section labelled controversy doesn't seem to present one -- it presents a group of historically ordered of statements that are not all the same topic or aligned, but do not see any A vs B presentation. Ignoring for the moment the portrayal that 1950s was not a political issue (Truman might have felt otherwise) I am left wondering where is the "Controversy" ??? Perhaps this was mislabelling as content seems intended to contain the cites for what has changed over time such as Nixon not spending led to the Budget Act of 1974 and what in 95 and that deficit control issues in 2011 led to 2011 supercomittee leading to FY13 sequestration and then FY14 shutdown ? Any thoughts on what to do with this section -- or should it just be deleted ? Markbassett (talk) 16:07, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

Update needed

The graph is more than 2 years old. Please update. Josha52 (talk) 22:10, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

The article generally needs update. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/charts/charts_debt.htm lists currend debt; cites that according to US law 113-83, US debt limit is suspended until March 2015. Pong2015 (talk) 03:04, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

I just updated with the debt limit in November 2015. Geraldshields11 (talk) 21:35, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Material from National Debt of the United States

I've trimmed this from the main page per WP:Summary and WP:Splitting. If any of this is not redundant, please include it into this article. Darx9url (talk) 13:47, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Dear @Darx9url: Thank you for your efforts. Geraldshields11 (talk) 21:36, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Relationship to appropriation process

The present debt ceiling is an aggregate limit applied to nearly all federal debt, which was substantially established by the Public Debt Acts of 1939 and 1941 and subsequently amended to change the ceiling amount.

The process of setting the debt ceiling is separate and distinct from the federal budget process, and raising the debt ceiling does not have any direct impact on the budget deficit. The U.S. President proposes a federal budget every year. This budget details projected tax collections and outlays and, if there is a budget deficit, the amount of borrowing the President is proposing in that fiscal year. Congress creates specific appropriation bills which authorize spending, which are signed into law by the President.

A vote to increase the debt ceiling is, therefore, usually treated as a formality, needed to continue spending that has already been approved previously by the Congress and the President. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) explains: "The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay obligations already incurred." The apparent redundancy of the debt ceiling has led to suggestions that it should be abolished altogether.

Since 1979, the House of Representatives passed a rule to automatically raise the debt ceiling when passing a budget, without the need for a separate vote on the debt ceiling, except when the House votes to waive or repeal this rule. The exception to the rule was invoked in 1995, which resulted in two government shutdowns.

Treasury measures when debt ceiling is reached

The Treasury is authorized to issue debt needed to fund government operations (as authorized by each federal budget) up to a stated debt ceiling, with some small exceptions. When the debt ceiling is reached, Treasury can declare a debt issuance suspension period and utilize "extraordinary measures" to acquire funds to meet federal obligations but which do not require the issue of new debt. One example is to suspend contributions to certain government pension funds. However, these amounts are not sufficient to cover government operations. Treasury first used these measures on December 16, 2009, to remain within the debt ceiling, and avoid a government shutdown, and also used it during the debt-ceiling crisis of 2011. However, there are limits to how much can be raised by these measures.

History

See also: United States debt-ceiling crisis of 2011 and United States debt-ceiling crisis of 2013

Development of US federal government debt ceiling from 1990 to January 2012

Between 1940 and January 2013, the debt ceiling was raised 54 times during Republican presidential administrations and 40 times during Democratic administrations. The ceiling was raised the most times (18) during President Reagan's administration, with no other President exceeding 10 times. During President Obama's first term, the ceiling was raised six times.

The debt ceiling was increased on February 12, 2010, to $14.294 trillion. On April 15, 2011, Congress finally passed the 2011 United States federal budget, authorizing federal government spending for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2011, with a deficit of $1.48 trillion, without voting to increase the debt ceiling. The two Houses of Congress were unable to agree on a revision of the debt ceiling in mid-2011, resulting in the United States debt-ceiling crisis. The impasse was resolved with the passing on August 2, 2011, the deadline for a default by the U.S. government on its debt, of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which immediately increased the debt ceiling to $14.694 trillion, required a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment, and established several complex mechanisms to further increase the debt ceiling and reduce federal spending.

On September 8, 2011, one of the complex mechanisms to further increase the debt ceiling took place as the Senate defeated a resolution to block a $500 billion automatic increase. The Senate's action allowed the debt ceiling to increase to $15.194 trillion, as agreed upon in the Budget Control Act. This was the third increase in the debt ceiling in 19 months, the fifth increase since President Obama took office, and the twelfth increase in 10 years. The August 2 Act also created the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction for the purpose of developing a set of proposals by November 23, 2011, to reduce federal spending by $1.2 trillion. The Act required both houses of Congress to convene an "up-or-down" vote on the proposals as a whole by December 23, 2011. The Joint Select Committee met for the first time on September 8, 2011. The debt ceiling was raised once more on January 30, 2012, to a new high of $16.394 trillion.

At midnight on December 31, 2012, a major provision of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) was scheduled to go into effect. The crucial part of the Act provided for a Joint Select Committee of Congressional Democrats and Republicans—the so-called "Supercommittee"—to produce bipartisan legislation by late November 2012 that would decrease the U.S. deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. To do so, the committee agreed to implement by law—if no other deal was reached before Dec. 31—massive government spending cuts as well as tax increases or a return to tax levels from previous years. These are the elements that make up the 'United States fiscal cliff.'

The Continuing Appropriations Act suspended the statutory debt limit through February 7, 2014. However, after February 7, the US "would be forced to use extraordinary measures to continue to finance the government on a temporary basis" and "Treasury is more likely to exhaust those measures in late February".