It began as a way to make it easier for the federal government to sell bonds to finance the U.S. role in World War I.
Now, more than a century later, the requirement for a legal ceiling on the federal debt has become something totally different: a political time bomb that, if not resolved, could cause an economic explosion.
Congressional Republicans are trying to use it to reestablish their fiscal credentials. But there is little evidence it’s been an effective way to restrain federal spending. Since 1917, Congress has debated and voted debt ceiling increases more than 100 times, while the debt has soared from an initial level of $15 billion to today’s $31.4 trillion.
