Debt Limit Debate

On Topic

After the United State's credit rating was downgraded in 2011 by Standard & Poor's due to the months of debate in Congress over raising the debt limit and a lack of substantive action on the budget deficit, the cost of political brinkmanship seemed clear. While Congress passed a last-minute bill that created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the committee's work has not led to real change, and the debt limit will be reached again in May. Brookings experts offer their perspectives and recommendations on the discussion.

U.S. dollar banknotes lie on a table in this picture illustration taken in Warsaw (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel).

Opinion

The Perils of Automatic Budgeting

March 26, 2013, Philip A. Wallach

In the fall of 1978, the United States Congress finally solved the federal government's budget problems. Philip Wallach examines how the automatic budget mechanism holds Washington under its spell as Congress continues to make iterative yet unsuccessful financial commitments.