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Republicans want to use the debt limit to wreck the economy. Will Democrats stop them?
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Republicans want to use the debt limit to wreck the economy. Will Democrats stop them?
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In what has become an almost annual ritual, the Republican Party is once again threatening not to raise the debt ceiling. If they follow through, they would destroy the US economy, immiserating millions of their own voters.
The fact that they don’t care shows the extent to which the GOP has abandoned small-d democratic incentives in favor of the reckless politics of authoritarianism and extremism.
The debt ceiling is a legislative limit on the amount of money the federal government can borrow to meet its payment obligations.
READ MORE: What Social Security should actually be paying to survive in this economy
The limit was established in 1917, and was routinely raised until the mid-1950s, when conservative lawmakers threatened to refuse President Dwight Eisenhower’s request for an increase.
