debt ceiling 
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SOURCE: The Guardian
6/1/2023
The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
by Mark Weisbrot
There is no "ticking bomb" of national debt; the use of the debt ceiling to threaten the nation with default to secure spending cuts that damage Democratic presidents is by now a clearly established partisan trick, and the US government should no longer be held hostage to it, says an economic policy researcher.
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SOURCE: New York Times
5/24/2023
Does Lincoln Hold the Key to the Debt Ceiling Crisis?
by Roger Lowenstein
Issuing "greenback" paper currency backed by the government's credit instead of gold was seen as a radical move in 1862, but Lincoln and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase recognized the paramount importance of safeguarding the nation's credit and did it anyway.
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SOURCE: NPR
4/29/2023
Financial Historian Kathleen Day on the Origins and History of the Debt Ceiling
Is the debt ceiling, which has been raised 78 times since being established by Congress during World War I, a useful periodic reminder of fiscal restraint or an outdated relic that has become a weapon for partisan extortionists? Kathleen Day discusses the ceiling with NPR's Scott Simon.
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SOURCE: Substack
5/2/2023
Would the American Right Crash the Economy for Political Advantage? Ask Chile
by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
From the moment socialist Salvador Allende was declared the winner of Chile's 1970 election, Henry Kissinger and CIA director Richard Helms were at work to "make the economy scream" to create favorable conditions for a right-wing coup.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
1/24/2023
What's the Deal with the Trillion Dollar Coin?
Law professor Rohan Grey discusses the history of the debt ceiling law and why minting a giant denomination coin might be the least stupid option should Congress refuse to raise the ceiling.
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SOURCE: New York Times
1/23/2023
The 14th Amendment Should Put a Stop to Debt Ceiling Hostage Taking
by Eric Foner
The provisions of the Reconstruction Amendments dealing with the national debt were tied to the nation's short-lived commitment to interracial democracy in the South; today they offer the Biden administration a possible tool to use if Congress pushes to the brink of default.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
1/6/2023
The Constitutional Case for Demolishing the Debt Ceiling
by Thomas Geoghegan
The Founders would find the debt ceiling a ludicrous concept; it's time to take this instrument of blackmail out of the legislative process. The Biden administration should provoke a court fight over the law as an unconstitutional limit on the government's ability to pay its debts.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
10/8/2021
The US is Politically Bankrupt
by Rebecca L. Spang
By provoking crisis over the debt ceiling, Republicans are failing to heed lessons from pre-revolutionary France.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
10/1/2021
Mint the Coin: The Debt Ceiling is an Absurd Problem. It's Time for an Absurd Solution
by Zachary D. Carter
Silly as it sounds, minting a trillion dollar coin is the solution to the recurrent ordeal of the debt ceiling. It's legal, it's sensible, and it's not more ridiculous than using the prospect of default as a political club.
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SOURCE: The Bulwark
10/1/2021
The Disturbing Precedent for McConnell’s Debt-Ceiling Brinksmanship
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Mitch McConnell's use of Senate rules and the body's disproportionate representation to ensure that Democrats who represent 41.5 million more people than Republicans are unable to govern. His tactics echo those of the antebellum Slavocracy.
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SOURCE: Washington Monthly
9/23/2021
Garrett Epps: The Civil War Roots of the Debt Ceiling Crisis
Congress wrote the 14th Amendment to guarantee the legitimacy of the United States' debt, because Southerners restored to power provoked a crisis over the respective war debts of the United States and the Confederacy.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
9/13/2021
The History of the Debt Ceiling: How a Routine Procedure Became Routine Political Brinksmanship
It's clear that the originators of legislation establishing a debt limit for the United States did not intend for the measure to be a land mine threatening to derail the government's operations on a recurring basis.
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SOURCE: The Nation
10-16-13
Lessons From the Great Default Crisis of 1975
by Kim Phillips-Fein
Thirty-eight years ago to this day, New York City almost went bankrupt.
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SOURCE: The Crisis Papers
10-16-13
Letter to European Friends: Understanding "The Stupid" in U.S. Politics
by Bernard Weiner
Are Americans totally round the bend?
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SOURCE: Bloomberg
10-14-13
When Debt-Ceiling Politics Was Bipartisan
by Stephen Mihm
President Barack Obama is hardly the first president forced to play debt-ceiling politics.
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SOURCE: Associated Press
10-14-13
Don Hickey: The U.S. defaulted on debt after War of 1812
Lessons from America's most forgotten war.
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SOURCE: WaPo
9-19-13
False claim: Debt ceiling never used for leverage in history
In 1973, when Richard Nixon was president, Democrats in the Senate sought to attach a campaign finance reform bill to the debt ceiling.
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10-14-13
How to Fix Congress? The States Should Propose a New Constitutional Convention.
by Richard Striner
Article V stipulates that two-thirds of the states can force Congress to call a constitutional convention.
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SOURCE: Politico
10-9-13
Obama's Constitutional Imperative
by Sean Wilentz
Obama must follow the 14th Amendment.
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10-9-13
We've Never Seen Anything Like a Potential Debt Ceiling Default. Ever.
by David Austin Walsh
Economic historians explain why a debt ceiling default would be a very, very bad thing.