Five Facts You Need to Know About the Debt Ceiling
In December, Congress passed a temporary bill to avoid a government shutdown, a measure that will keep the government funded through January 19. With this deadline looming, lawmakers are now negotiating a permanent spending bill, part of which may include raising the debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling is a limit set by Congress on how much money the federal government can borrow at any given time. Today, this limit is over $20 trillion. Raising the debt ceiling allows the Treasury Department to borrow more money to pay the country’s bills. However, many Republicans are against raising it, fearing that a higher limit will significantly increase the country’s debt.
As budget negotiations continue over the coming weeks, here are five facts you need to know about the debt ceiling, its history and its importance.
1. Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 separate times since 1960.
According to the Treasury Department, the debt ceiling has been raised 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic ones.
2. Under President Reagan, the debt ceiling increased 18 times, the most of any administration.
Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter both raised the debt ceiling 10 times. President George H.W. Bush raised it nine times and President Richard Nixon raised it eight times. Since the debt ceiling was created in 1917, President Harry Truman raised it the least number of times, having only increased it twice.
3. Even though Republicans have raised the debt ceiling more times, Democrats have accounted for bigger percentage increases.
Data compiled by The Guardian shows that, under Democratic leadership, there has been a 16.8 percent average increase in the debt ceiling. Under Republican leadership, there has been a 5.6 percent increase in the debt ceiling.
4. Dollar-wise, the gross national debt grew the most under President Barack Obama. Percentage-wise, the gross national debt grew the most under President Franklin Roosevelt.
During his eight years in office, President Obama raised the national debt by over $9 trillion. When he left office in January 2017, the national debt was $19.9 trillion, up from $10.63 trillion at the end of the Bush administration.
President Roosevelt only increased the national debt by $236 billion; however, this was over a 1,000 percent increase from the $23 billion debt left by President Herbert Hoover. According to The Balance, $209 billion of the $236 billion increase was added between 1942 and 1945.
5. Public debt has been increasing significantly for almost 200 years.
The Washington Examiner reports that 1836 — President Andrew Jackson’s last year in office — was the last year there was no public debt. The Examiner also notes that only three other presidents (Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, and Franklin Pierce) left office with a public debt of one percent or less of the GDP.
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