Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Democrats, Don’t Repeat This Debt-Ceiling Debacle

The next time the party controls Congress and the White House, it will be essential to do away with the borrowing limit.

June 1, 2023 at 11:30 AM UTC

By Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

If Democrats have another chance to get rid of the debt ceiling entirely, they should take it.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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We can finally exhale. The House of Representatives passed an agreement to suspend the debt ceiling until 2025, and the Senate is expected to approve the measure in the coming days. Congress — Republicans in Congress — aren’t going to blow up the economy. This time.

Because make no mistake, this vote was not a sure thing. Had Speaker Kevin McCarthy managed things less adeptly; had President Joe Biden been more anxious about his standing within his party; had the negotiators for McCarthy and the White House been less skilled; had former President Donald Trump stumped hard against the deal: There was a real chance of something going badly wrong.