The US Capitol in Washington, DC in April 2025.
Photographer: Daniel Heuer/BloombergWhy Congress Raised the Debt Ceiling in its Tax and Spending Bill
With US national debt growing, the Treasury keeps coming up against its credit limit, necessitating resets of the cap.
When Republicans in Congress won passage of a sweeping bill to advance President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda on July 3, they committed the federal government to spending more money than it’s expected to take in.
That’s typical. The government has run a fiscal deficit every year since 2001. This means it has to keep borrowing to bridge the gap. As a result, national debt has continued to grow. The tax cuts and spending plans in the Republican package are projected to add $3.4 trillion over the next decade to the hole the US is in, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which provides nonpartisan analysis of US fiscal policy.