Over the past 40 years, the ONLY times we have made ANY progress on reducing federal spending and deficits has been by using the debt ceiling as leverage. It’s the taxpayers’ best friend.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/03/
That was true in the 1980s with enactment of the Gramm-Rudman spending caps. It was true in the mid 1990s when Republicans negotiated the balanced budget deal with Bill Clinton as a debt ceiling loomed (and we actually had THREE balanced budgets for the first and only time in 60 years). It was true when John Boehner negotiated the Budget Control Act spending caps when Obama was president.
Trump is right that he’s not responsible for the monster deficits and spending expansions of the Biden years. But we hear too many Republicans now saying we should give Congress an unlimited credit card. To get rid of the debt ceiling is like unlocking the liquor cabinet in your house and hoping your teenage kids don’t raid it.
Reaching the debt ceiling does NOT mean a debt default. That’s a boogeyman. It simply means Congress can’t borrow another penny and thus can only spend what it brings in each day. The first obligation of the government is to pay the bond holders.
Trump should use the debt ceiling to force Congress to cut spending and enact pro-growth policies – like selling federal assets and leasing federal lands for drilling and mining.