All About the Debt Ceiling as Trump Backs Ending It: QuickTake

Months before many officials in Washington — and investors in the bond market — anticipated, the federal debt ceiling has re-entered political discourse, after President-elect Donald Trump said Dec. 19 that he’d back getting rid of the cap entirely, more than a century after its creation. The limit has long been a tool of political leverage for the party in opposition, because of the dire consequences of any failure to either suspend or increase it.

Joggers run past the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

What is the debt ceiling?

It’s a cap on US government borrowing, first established by Congress in 1917. Because lawmakers keep enacting bills ...