Dancin’ With The Political Stars
by digby
The Big Picture has a great post up on debt ceiling kabuki through the ages. It’s a long standing American tradition, right up there with baseball and game shows. Here’s one from the rockin’ 50s:
• The Federal Debt Ceiling (July 26, 1958) “A specter that has been putting in an appearance more or less regularly every year now since 1953 is again back to haunt the Administration. That is the problem of keeping the public dept within the dept ceiling – a problem that will be additionally complicated in the present fiscal year at least by the prospect of a very substantial budget deficit. The dept ceiling is a comparatively new instrument of fiscal control in this country. In 1938, with the dept then standing at what many regarded as the dangerously high level of $37 billion, Congress acted to discourage future reckless spending by setting a limit on the debt of $45 billion. During the ensuing eight years, most of which were marked by war or preparation for war, Congress had little choice but to revise this limited ceiling upward when such action was requested by the President. The ceiling was lifted five times in that period, until it reached $300 billion in 1945. A year later it was revised downward for the first time to its present level of $275 billion.”
And it immediately all went to hell in hand basket.
The post tracks the ritual dance through every decade, in good times and bad, up markets and down markets, under Republicans and Democrats. Why doesn’t the press ever mention this?
h/t to JS
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