Among the measures being debated by Congress to avert a government shutdown is increasing the debt ceiling — or eliminating it entirely. A soft brake on government borrowingThe debt ceiling is a relatively new instrument in the U.S.'s economic toolkit. In 1939, the government officially decided to use the debt ceiling in order to manage its debt obligations on an aggregate basis. Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised 78 times — 49 times under Republican presidents, and 29 times under Democratic administrations. "It’s all politics.”Bipartisan supportSo what if the debt ceiling were to simply go away entirely?

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Persons: It's, Donald Trump, Jamie Dimon, there's, ” Trump, “, Trump, ” Sen, Elizabeth Warren, Hakeem Jeffries, Chip Roy, I’ve, Roy, ’, Republican obstructionists Organizations: U.S, Treasury, White, Social Security, Democratic, JPMorgan, Republican Party, NBC, New York's, Republican Locations: U.S, New, Texas