Jay & Shai's debt ceiling adventure (Update)

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Note: A version of this episode first ran in 2023.

Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely.

Which is daunting, because if lawmakers don't figure something out in time, the ramifications for the global economy could be huge.

Shai Akabas, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, has become something of the go-to expert in calculating the exact date America would hit the wall and not be able to pay all its debts. This day is so terrifying it has a special name, the X-Date.

Today's episode is about how Akabas and Jay Powell — long before he became chair of the Federal Reserve — worked to create a system to determine the X-Date with the hope of helping us all never reach it.

We also have an update on this year's looming X-Date, which could arrive as soon as this summer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.1	Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in.
0:11.2	And in order to fund all that spending, the country borrows a lot of money.
0:16.4	It takes on debt.
0:18.4	Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Right now, that debt
0:22.9	limit, which is also known as the debt ceiling, is $36.1 trillion. But as the spending keeps going
0:30.9	and the debt ticks up, we get closer and closer to that limit. A little over a week ago,
0:36.7	Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, if something isn't done,
0:40.5	we will hit the debt ceiling this summer.
0:44.0	I will tell you, just as an outfielder running for a fly ball, we are on the warning track.
0:54.1	And when you're on the warning track, it means the wall is not far away.
0:58.5	The exact date when the U.S. won't be able to pay all of its bills is so terrifying
1:04.3	that it has a special name, the X date.
1:08.6	A lot of effort and sometimes some shenanigans, go into determining this deadline for Congress to, you know, do something to act, to raise the debt limit, to suspend the debt limit, to eliminate the debt limit entirely, or I don't know, maybe try something creative.
1:25.8	But the date when we hit the debt limit wasn't always called
1:29.3	the X date. Back in 2023, we met the people who basically created the X-date world we live in.
1:37.1	Today's show is about how we got here, and at the end, we'll have an update on the 2025 X-Date.
1:44.2	But first, this story we reported back in 2023.
1:48.3	It started with a trip to Washington, D.C. on a day of anticipation.
1:53.4	A couple of days ago, oh, people are starting to show up.
1:57.5	Oh, wait, they're hiding.
1:58.3	I went to hang out with Shy Akavas.
	...

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