Budget

From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Sarah Bruch of the University of Iowa. Edited for Journalist’s Resource.

What is the “debt ceiling” and why does it matter?

At the most basic level, it is the limit that Congress places on the U.S. Treasury in terms of how much debt it can issue. The Treasury has been at its technical limit — $16.699 trillion — since May, but it has been using certain budgeting tactics, so-called “extraordinary measures,” to get around the stated limits. But those measures will shortly no longer be viable, if Congress does not act.

From the moment the baby-boom generation took its first steps in 1946, its members have had an enormous impact on the United States. They powered the suburbanization of America in the 1950s, youth rebellion in the 1960s and the “Me Decade” of the 1970s. And now as they approach retirement, their sheer numbers will continue to drive societal change.