The Partisan History of the Debt Ceiling

January 11, 2013

Ronald Reagan gives a televised address from the Oval Office, outlining his plan for Tax Reduction Legislation in July 1981. (Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

As we head toward what will likely be another rancorous debt ceiling debate, the writers at The Guardian’s Datablog have updated their great series of charts that tell the ceiling’s story.

Since 1944, America’s debt ceiling has been increased 94 times. Up until the mid-90s, it was a pretty routine part of congressional business. But in the fall of 1995, Republican House leaders Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and John Boehner announced that within seven years they wanted $245 billion in tax cuts, entitlement reform and a balanced budget. President Clinton refused to give in and Americans dealt with the most serious government shutdown in U.S. history. In early 1996, when Moody’s announced they were considering downgrading America’s debt rating, the Republicans finally folded.

“The most crucial difference between Clinton’s debt limit battle and the current crisis is that, in 1996, the Republicans were bluffing. No Republican seriously considered defaulting on the debt to be a viable option,” Kara Brandeisky wrote in The New Republic.

A decade and a half later, in 2011, the debates created a stalemate that lead to an actual credit downgrade. (Clinton said that if he were still president, he would use the 14th Amendment — which many think makes the concept of debt ceilings unconstitutional — to bypass Congress. President Obama, a former professor of constitutional law, has so far resisted that option.)

Given the recent reluctance of the more conservative wing of the GOP to raise the ceiling, and the general GOP resistance to raising taxes, you may be surprised to learn that over the years Republican presidents have raised the debt ceiling more times than Democratic presidents.

In fact, the debt ceiling was increased the most times under President Reagan.

Although the debt ceiling has been increased more frequently under Republican administrations, the amount it has been raised has been smaller on average than increases that occurred during the tenure of Democratic presidents.

For more data on the debt ceiling, including the number of times it has been lowered (yes, it happens, though not recently), take a look at The Guardian’s Datablog.

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TOPICS: The Economy

TAGS: barack obama, chart, debt ceiling, john boehner, widget

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Anonymous
An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace; but an ill thought leaves a trail like a serpent.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Cooper/100001997924719 Daniel Cooper
Buy all the guns and ammo you can while you can. The fraud of the
Federal Reserve printing money out of thin air and loaning to
Governments at interest is coming to an end. The Politicians acting like
drunken sailors and drug addicts with tax payer debt is ending. Now
they want your guns. The right to bear arms was for self defense even if
you needed to protect yourself from Government.
http://www.facebook.com/people/George-Kafantaris/100000398466956 George Kafantaris
A fair fight, yes, but nobody gets bypassed, circumvented or nullified.
That’s not how to run the government.
Nor can we run it long with arm-twisting, expediency and gimmicks.
Governing is hard work and we’ll just have to work through it. There are no easy roads to governing, just as there are no easy roads to learning.
And for the same reason: Governing requires effort — not only to understand what needs to be done — but also effort to understand the other side.
Fred B.
Since these events are not necessarily the result of unilateral acts, I’d like to see a chart doing a comparative relationship between Presidential terms, debt and deficit increases AND Congressional majority at those times.
Joy Danielson
I agree. Well said.
http://www.facebook.com/anne.walker.524 Anne Walker
Easy enough to research. From 1981 to 1986, the GOP controlled the Senate while the Democrats controlled the House. From 1987 to 1994, the Democrats controlled Congress. Then the GOP took control from 1995 to 2006. What was left out of this article that should have been included is how much the debt increased under each president. During the Reagan administration it increased by 186%. Under Bush Sr, it increased by 54%. Clinton – 41%. Bush Jr – 72%. and 23% under Obama.
http://www.facebook.com/woodguy11 Raymond Fristrom
And the party that has raised taxes the most was the GOP. Look up how many times Reagan did it. He is the one that put a tax on unemployment insurance. So those of on UI have that man to thank for taxing unemployment Ins.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1433503445 Judy Zitko
Problem is that our corporate controlled media never tells the people anything like this so they continue to be misinformed, which is intentional on the part of the special interests. Control the media, control the people.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1433503445 Judy Zitko
Reagan also put in place the income tax on SS benefits as well as UI.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1433503445 Judy Zitko
You’d see pretty much the same thing.
http://www.facebook.com/greg.postle.39 Greg Postle
While we seem to be focused on the increase in the debt as a percentage during each administration, we also need to look at those percentages as real dollars. If we add up the increases, we discover that $100.00 of January 1981 debt had grown to $1,068.15 by the end of George W. Bush’s administration. The increase in debt under President Obama’s watch amounts to $245.67–a whopping 132% of the entire increase during Reagan’s two terms. Thus, we cannot say lightly the debt has grown by only 23%. This line of thinking is simple-minded and dangerous. This is unsustainable and cannot continue unless we wish to become the next Greece. And there will NOT any bailout available….
http://www.facebook.com/BingoSarahF Sarah Fuchs
Why does this surprise you? Repubs are only against raising the debt when Dems are in the White House. I thought everybody knew that by now.
http://twitter.com/lafemmeartiste Kerrie B. Wrye
Stop this fear-based rhetoric: “to become the next Greece.” The economic challenge we all face, deserves to be interacted with as clear-eyed and clear-minded as good information can provide for clear our understanding and ability to resolve the best we can. We do not need the distraction of emotionally based acting out, while we all face this together.
I agree with Obama!
“The fact that we’re here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means ‘The buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” — Sen. Barack Obama, March 16, 2006
Anonymous
This all makes perfect sense. Debt is a function of spending and spending is a power that only Congress holds. And Congress has been in the hands of the Democrats more than Republicans over the last 50 years, including during Regan’s presidency.
Indeed, the fact that the ceiling numbers have gone up less when a Republican is President is simply a correlation of a Republican President serving to attenuate the increases in spending Democrats want year-over-year.
In fact, the only time we even balanced the budget in the last 50 years, it was a Republican Congress that did so. They refused to give in to Clinton and even shut the government down. The press played it up as a victory for Clinton, but we reelected the Republican Congress and more importantly, the Republican Congress balanced the budget multiple times. And we enjoyed a pretty good economy overall during that time. In fact, the recent economic recession did not start until well after Democrats finally retook control of Congress. And it accelerated when Obama was elected and has only finally improved once we got a Republican House back in place to put a brake on the Democrats liberal law making.
Anonymous
Reagan? I think you must be an Obama supporter and think a President can just make up laws. The Democrat Congress in 1984 passed the law that started taxing SS earnings on income above a certain threshold. That Congress was overwhelming Democratic. And in 1993 another Democrat Congress increased the threshold and started taxing 85% of those earnings, increasing the taxes people pay on SS. And that year, the President was a Democrat too.
You guys act like Congress has nothing to do with taxing and spending. The reality it Congress has the power over all taxing and spending. The President can issue a veto, as Regan and Bush I and Bush II did many times. But Congress can override, which gives Congress the ultimate power over both.
Civics. It’s not just a class that gives you time to play on your phone.
Anonymous
Debt when Obama because President was just over 10 trillion. It is now over 16 trillion. Your skill at arithmetic leaves a lot to be desired.
And the data is clear. Debt increases have occurred mostly under Democrat Congresses. Even under Bush II, the last two fiscal years (2008, 2009) were years that Democrats controlled both Houses. And in those two years the deficits were over $450 billion and $1.2 trillion. The FY 2007 year, the last year the Republicans had during the Bush years, the deficit was $170 billion.
Since Presidents cannot increase the debt, nor appropriate a single dime, what matters is the party that controls Congress when it comes to spending and taxation. That has, and will always, be true. Just ask Obama whether he wishes he had a Republican House or Democrat House right now.
And of course The House is where the majority is the most important as they don’t have the filibuster. It is better to control The House than The Senate.
Anonymous
There have been such studies and they show the Democrats are the biggest spenders, and Democrats under Obama the biggest of all. But one also has to be fair and account for the fact that a large part of our spending is mandated by law and that Congress does not appropriate on a per-year basis. These programs are almost all programs passed by a Democrat Congress and signed by a Democrat President. We call most of them “entitlements” and they are on auto-pilot.
Once passed, the programs have obligated succeeding Congresses when it comes to spending. And killing a program is extremely hard. Both for domestic political reasons and structural (think filibuster and the 60 Senate vote rule).
Fred B.
I understand that one session may mandate and the other gets stuck paying…or raising the debt ceiling on their own choices. But I’m not inclined to agree that Dems under this administration are the worst of the worse. Depressed GDP coupled with tanking Federal revenues, arguably effective stimulus packages (of further income reduction through tax breaks and state handouts) and willful obstructionism by the loyal opposition tend to suggest label of “biggest of the worst” is somewhere in the category of red herrings. Nope. Not hopping on this bus.
Tom
Everyone should educate themselves as to what and how much our Federal Government spend and allocates to redundant policies and self-serving programs. In effect, how would each of this generation go about ridding this Nation of the 17 trillion debt that now hangs on our heads……..
Anonymous
Greece does not have the ability to control their own currency. They are part of the EU. Greece, Spain, Portugal are all proof that austerity does NOT work. France has bucked this trend and is growing out of their economic problems. No country on the earth has ever cut their way to prosperity and out of economic downturn. There is no instance of it, ever. There is ample evidence that following the GOP model of “trickle down” economics doesn’t work. When it was forced on Chile at gunpoint, supply side economics created 54% unemployment.
Anonymous
This is a lie.
Dubya left office with 10.7 trillion in debt, and another 1.1 trillion in debt service. That’s 11.7 trillion. Add to that another 500 million in lost revenue to the Treasury as a result of the Republican Great Recession, and you have a grand total of:
$12,311,349,677,512
http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm
Bush policies like the tax cuts for the super rich that were in place when Obama took office created another 2 trillion in debt, along with the Republican Great Recession that this corrupt Republican congress refuses to fix by creating jobs. Obama’s policies have resulted in only 2 trillion in spending that can be attributed to his management of the economic meltdown that he inherited.
Corporations and the super rich are not paying much if anything in taxes. The effective tax rate is less than 13% and some industries like energy receive large subsidies that they should not be receiving.
If we fix the tax code and have everyone pay their fair share, and pass a jobs bill that will put people back to work, the revenue will grow the economy and the debt will not be a problem. Cutting spending at this time will be national suicide, similar to what was imposed on countries in the EU, but self imposed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1727680892 Beth Dennis
Did you look at the charts? Republicans may have raised the debt ceiling the most number of TIMES, but Democrats have raised the debt ceiling by far and away the most MONEY.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1727680892 Beth Dennis
You mean that Obama’s buddies, like Warren Buffet and General Electric, aren’t paying much in taxes. Doesn’t matter how much they owe, they just don’t pay them. And they get away with it because they are Democrats.