Failing to raise the debt limit would be catastrophic.
Washington is staring down another debt limit crisis. This could become a constructive opportunity for reform if lawmakers dispense with the gimmicks and default threats.
As a fiscal conservative who has spent two decades in Washington fighting both parties on deficits, I sympathize with Republicans using the debt limit to address the underlying deficits because such an approach used to be bipartisan. Since 1985, the eight largest deficit-reduction laws — such as the 1990 George H.W. Bush tax hikes, 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and 2009 Pay-As-You-Go law — were all attached to debt limit increases. Every one of them.
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Brian M. Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
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