For three decades, Taxpayers for Common Sense has worked to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly and transparently. During much of that time, we supported the debt limit as a crucial inflection point—a chance to confront the nation’s fiscal challenges and chart a more sustainable financial course. However, in January 2023, after repeated episodes of debt limit brinkmanship that threatened the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury and made default a tangible risk—even by accident—we reevaluated our position. We concluded that the debt limit had become a weapon of fiscal terror rather than a tool for meaningful reflection, and we called for its elimination. We reiterated that position when the current debt limit deal was included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and it remains unchanged.

The looming possibility of a government shutdown highlights the dysfunction dominating fiscal policymaking. While the suspension of the debt limit is set to expire in early January, extraordinary measures could delay the need for action until mid-summer. This timeline should give lawmakers ample opportunity to address the issue responsibly. Yet, history shows that brinkmanship and partisan posturing often take precedence over sound governance.

It is important to note that much of the past debt limit brinkmanship has been driven by Republican lawmakers. With Republicans poised to control both chambers of Congress and the White House, one might expect less resistance to raising the debt limit. However, political alignment is no substitute for systemic reform. As we wrote in early 2023 in Pointing the Debt Limit Gun at Ourselves:

“There was a time when we believed the debt limit served a purpose. It forced a moment of reflection about how much debt the country and its elected officials had racked up. An opportunity for discussion. It was consistently increased, but just voting on it created that opportunity. Now that it has become a weapon for fiscal terror, it has outlived its usefulness. Lawmakers should raise the debt limit and then eliminate this costly gimmick.”

Taxpayers deserve better than governance by crisis. The new Congress and the next Administration are arriving in Washington with a promise to question the status quo and jettison policies that have failed to deliver for taxpayers. The debt ceiling is one of those tools that should be jettisoned. But Congress must stop playing games with our nation’s finances and focus on long-term solutions that ensure fiscal responsibility without threatening economic stability or wasting taxpayer dollars.