Demand Progress

Tea Party Republicans used the debt ceiling to force spending cuts and damage the American economy while President Obama was in office.¹ Now, Republicans are threatening to use the debt limit to force cuts to critical social programs like Medicare and Social Security.² It’s simple: we must eliminate the debt ceiling.

The debt limit has become a political bargaining chip that can cause serious harm to the economy and lead to austerity cuts to important programs that millions of Americans rely on.³ If we get rid of the debt ceiling, the GOP simply loses a method of enacting disastrous budget cuts and wrecking our economy.

Tell your members of Congress to immediately abolish the debt limit. It’s time to take away this political leverage from Republicans.

Raising the debt limit used to be a formality, now it’s another thing the GOP has hijacked for its own conservative policy objective. The debt limit has no effect on federal spending or the amount we need to borrow, it solely restricts the Treasury Department’s ability to honor our government’s financial commitments.⁴ That means our government would be unable to pay for the programs and services that Congress has already approved — defaulting on our debts.

The House Budget Committee puts it plainly, "If Congress were to ever allow the debt ceiling to lapse and Treasury was forced to default, the consequences for the U.S. economy and the American people would be severe, widespread, and painful."⁵

The debt limit serves no beneficial function. It can only cause this “severe pain” in America. And, it gives Republicans the opportunity to force through spending cuts so Congress is able to raise the debt ceiling and avoid that "severe pain" to the American people and economy.

If the debt ceiling was eliminated, these risks to the economy and the GOP’s leverage to cut spending go away without causing any other changes to our government’s spending policies. It’s time, once and for all, to get rid of the debt ceiling before Republicans can use it again for disastrous spending cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Tell your members of Congress, we must eliminate the debt ceiling — it can only cause problems for the American people and economy!

Sources: 

1. Economic Policy Institute, “Abolish the debt ceiling before it commits austerity again,” September 27, 2021.
2. Bloomberg News, “Entitlement, Spending Cap Plans Linked by GOP to Debt-Limit Deal,” October 11, 2022.
3. Economic Policy Institute, “Abolish the debt ceiling before it commits austerity again,” September 27, 2021.
4. House Budget Committee, “Why Congress Needs to Abolish the Debt Limit,” February 11, 2022.
5. Ibid.