The Debt Ceiling Showdown, Explained

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

In the past decade or more, votes over increasing the U.S. debt ceiling have increasingly been used as a political tool. That has led to intense showdowns in 2011, 2013 and, now, 2023. This year, both sides of the argument are dug in and Republicans appear more willing to go over the cliff than in the past. What does this year’s showdown look like and how, exactly, did the United States’ debt balloon to $31 trillion? Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.
0:03.8	This is a Daily.
0:05.3	Today, as House Republicans and President Biden head toward yet another high-stakes
0:18.5	showdown over the debt ceiling, my colleague Jim Tancersley looks at which party is really
0:25.7	behind the original problem of the country's ballooning debt.
0:34.8	It's Monday, January 23rd.
0:44.3	Jim, we are here to talk about the debt ceiling.
0:49.8	As annual dance, this fiscal, fox trot, we do seemingly every year in this country, and
0:57.2	we are about to do it all over again.
0:59.9	Yeah, it's Groundhog Day in Washington again.
1:03.7	The reason why is because by law, Congress can only borrow so much money at a time.
1:10.1	The federal government can only have so much debt.
1:13.1	Because Congress borrow money all the time, we have to keep raising that limit on how
1:17.8	much debt we can have.
1:19.2	It's just a vote.
1:20.2	Congress has it.
1:21.2	It likes to kick the can down the road, only as far as it can get a little bit out of
1:24.7	sight and then pretty soon it catches back up to the can.
1:27.6	And then votes to raise the debt ceiling all over again.
1:29.6	And the votes to do it again and again and again and again.
1:31.5	This has happened a lot over American history and for long stretches of time.
1:36.3	It was a basically pro forma act.
	...

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