Congress is considering suspending the debt limit again, this time for more than a year. Congress last suspended the debt limit from February 4 through May 18, increasing the debt by $300 billion. Suspending the debt limit again through December 31, 2014, would add $1.1 trillion to the debt, for a total increase of $1.4 trillion in two years.
Help me understand. Suspending the debt limit, at least historically, only allows the government to pay the debts it already has incurred. Has something changed? What is the relationship to the act of suspending the debt limit and deficit spending? And after so many decades of routine votes to do it, why has it now suddenly become a form of holding the government hostage?
Congress is considering suspending the debt limit again, this time for more than a year. Congress last suspended the debt limit from February 4 through May 18, increasing the debt by $300 billion. Suspending the debt limit again through December 31, 2014, would add $1.1 trillion to the debt, for a total increase of $1.4 trillion in two years.
Help me understand. Suspending the debt limit, at least historically, only allows the government to pay the debts it already has incurred. Has something changed? What is the relationship to the act of suspending the debt limit and deficit spending? And after so many decades of routine votes to do it, why has it now suddenly become a form of holding the government hostage?