The regular debt ceiling limit dance seems to evoke a fairly
standard set of behaviors in the two major US political parties:
Whichever party is out of power (White House, or Congress or
both) threatens not to support raising the debt ceiling. Which
ever party is in power talks about how irresponsible and
dangerous such a move would be. The historical statutory debt
ceiling increases (sourced from Table 7.3 here; click graph for
Spreadsheet) reveal this game has gone on for more than half
three quarters of a century. To put this into context, consider
the following quote: “The Republican-dominated Senate voted
tonight by 64 to 34 to raise the Government’s borrowing
authority to more than $1 trillion for the first time in
history. The vote to raise the debt ceiling, to $1,079 billion,
will allow the Government to start its new fiscal year Thursday
with sufficient funds in its coffers to pay its bills . . .
Although the routine increase in the debt ceiling was essential
to meet Government obligations already in