For months, talk about the debt-ceiling crisis has been discussed on many news broadcasts. The showdown has been between the Democrats (for raising the national debt ceiling) and the Republicans (against it). The disagreement centers on some debt-ceiling issues that are yet unresolved between the two parties.
About the Debt Ceiling
The debt limit, also called the debt ceiling, is the amount of money the U.S. Treasury is allowed to spend to pay the nation’s bills. The agency does not have the power to create new commitments on spending. America has never defaulted on paying its bills, but if it did, turmoil would result—nationally and internationally. Currently, the debt ceiling stands at $31.4 trillion.The U.S. Treasury says that raising the government debt ceiling is not unusual. It has been raised 78 times since 1960, and more often by Republican presidents (49 times) than Democratic ones (29 times). The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) reports that the national debt has almost tripled since 2009.
