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Because the government spends more money than it collects in tax revenue, lawmakers need to periodically tackle the issue -- a politically difficult task, as many are reluctant to vote for more debt.
A country's gross government debt (also called public debt or sovereign debt [1]) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. [2]: 81 Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. [3] A deficit occurs when a government's expenditures exceed revenues.
The Government Accountability Office reported in February 2011 that managing debt when delays in raising the debt limit occur diverts Treasury's resources from other cash and debt management responsibilities and that Treasury's borrowing costs modestly increased during debt limit debates in 2002, 2003, 2010 and 2011.
The United States debt ceiling is a legislative limit that determines how much debt the Treasury Department may incur. [23] It was introduced in 1917, when Congress voted to give Treasury the right to issue bonds for financing America participating in World War I, [24] rather than issuing them for individual projects, as had been the case in the past.
The annualized cost of servicing this debt was $726 billion in July 2023, which accounted for 14% of the total federal spending. [11] In February 2024, the total federal government debt grew to $34.4 trillion after having grown by approximately $1 trillion in both of two separate 100-day periods since the previous June. [12]
During the next 10 years, higher interest rates due solely to Congressional budget shenanigans could raise borrowing costs in the United States by nearly $1 trillion, according to new research by ...
The Senate approved a slimmed-down, temporary government spending plan early Saturday morning, averting a shutdown of the federal government. The legislation now goes to President Joe Biden for ...
The debt ceiling issue was one of the causes for the 2013 government shutdown, and a lack of a budget bill over the issue forced the government to sequester its budget. The crisis, as well as the government shutdown, ended on October 17, 2013, with the passing of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014.