When in doubt, trust President-elect Donald Trump. In modern politics — as distinct from religion or moral philosophy — you will find no more reliable guiding principle than this.
Of course, fellow conservatives need not take my word for it. But do consider the preponderance of evidence, including the truth behind America’s century-old statutory debt limit, more commonly known as the debt ceiling.
Now that a massive public pressure campaign has resulted in the defeat of a horrific, pork-filled federal spending bill, some conservatives have expressed concern over what comes next, particularly if Trump succeeds in his stated goal of securing a bill that raises or eliminates the debt ceiling before his inauguration next month.
The debt ceiling, which dates to 1917, set limits on the federal government’s ability to borrow money, per Investopedia. In theory, at least, those limits help curb reckless government spending.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital Thursday morning.
The president-elect’s concern over the debt ceiling requires some context.
Last month, Trump entrusted his friend and ally Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, and Vivek Ramaswamy, former Republican presidential candidate, with the crucial task of leading the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a new temporary agency designed to bring fiscal sanity to the federal government, in particular its sprawling bureaucracy.
Wednesday on X, Musk and Ramaswamy led the pressure campaign that forced legislators to reject the pork-filled spending bill. Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance also opposed the bill.
The president-elect, however, had concerns beyond the excessive spending.
Should Congress eliminate the debt ceiling?
“If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration,” Trump wrote Wednesday evening on his social media platform, TruthSocial.
Then, Thursday morning on X, Garrett Haake of NBC News reported that Trump hopes to scrap the debt ceiling altogether.
“TRUMP doesn’t want to just lift the debt ceiling — he’s keen to get rid of it, telling me in a phone interview ‘The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge.’ He sees it as a fake thing. No real value re: debt control,” Haake wrote.
TRUMP doesn’t want to just lift the debt ceiling- he’s keen to get rid of it, telling me in a phone interview “The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge.”
He sees it as a fake thing. No real value re: debt control
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) December 19, 2024
Meanwhile, Trump’s debt-related comments have left some conservatives uneasy.
That includes libertarian-minded conservatives whose opinions command respect, such as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
“Now conservatives are clamoring for a clean CR and a debt limit increase! Isn’t that what Speaker McCarthy was vacated for? How times change,” Massie posted Thursday morning on X.
Now conservatives are clamoring for a clean CR and a debt limit increase!
Isn’t that what Speaker McCarthy was vacated for?
How times change.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 19, 2024
Conservative economist Brian Wesbury argued that the debt ceiling at least promotes transparency.
“But, please do not get rid of the debt ceiling. It embarrasses government. That’s good,” Wesbury tweeted Thursday.
It is fantastic that this crazy “continuing resolution,” that actually changed things (like spending more, giving Congress a raise and immunity), not just “continue” things,” got shot down.
But, please do not get rid of the debt ceiling. It embarrasses government. That’s good.— Brian Wesbury (@wesbury) December 19, 2024
Likewise, Daniel Horowitz of The Blaze opposed raising or eliminating the debt ceiling.
“So if we are just going to swap out the congressional pay raise and other similar provisions for even more substantial deficit spending, we will be worse off than when we started this fight,” Horowitz wrote at the end of a lengthy post Thursday.
In other words, all of the worst parts of it plus an even worse new part with debt limit.
Look, let’s be honest. Republicans have passed much worse transformational bills relative to current law. Yes, there are obnoxious provisions in the bill, but the main issue is inflation… https://t.co/yU3T9LNKav
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) December 19, 2024
What, therefore, should readers make of this debt-ceiling debate?
Well, first and foremost, Massie and the others raised legitimate concerns.
After all, the national debt has already surpassed $36 trillion. That means that the debt has doubled in the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Treasury. It cannot continue to grow at that pace.
On the other hand, one must acknowledge the difference between the national debt and the debt ceiling.
The national debt includes financial obligations already incurred. The debt ceiling, however, refers to the maximum amount of money the federal government may borrow to meet those obligations.
Thus, as one X user wrote in response to Horowitz, the debt ceiling technically does not increase spending.
“Do you understand what a debt limit does? It’s not spending we are at our debt limit pretty much we increase or default. This has nothing to do with spending,” the user wrote.
Do you understand what a debt limit does? It’s not spending we are at our debt limit pretty much we increase or default. This has nothing to do with spending.
— PA Rich (@Richard81751384) December 19, 2024
Indeed, Congress has already spent the money. Raising or eliminating the debt ceiling, therefore, adds no additional spending.
Recall, for instance, that in May 2023, during the last serious debate over the debt ceiling, President Joe Biden cautiously raised the idea of invoking the 14th Amendment — Democrats love misapplying the 14th Amendment — which places the “validity of the public debt of the United States” beyond question, according to CNN.
The concern at the time involved not necessarily new spending, but the prospect of default on the national debt.
And that brings us back to Trump.
Why has the president-elect threatened Republicans with primary challengers should they fail to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling? What did he mean by “Democrat quicksand”?
Could it be that Trump expects his unscrupulous enemies in Congress to play a game of political brinkmanship next year? In other words, would Democrats risk a default on the national debt as long as it embarrassed the Trump administration?
In short, considering the president-elect’s commitment to DOGE, his lengthy experience with Democrat shenanigans and, most important of all, the fact that the debt ceiling does not appear in the Constitution and has apparently done nothing to restrain federal spending in recent years, an honest and reasonable observer might give Trump the benefit of any debt-related doubts.
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