President Trump Says He’s Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling

President Trump said Thursday that he would be open to eliminating the debt ceiling, a routine procedural move that has become heavily politicized in recent years.

Speaking to reporters in the Cabinet Room, Trump said that he had discussed the idea with congressional leaders from both parties in a meeting in the White House on Wednesday, confirming a story reported earlier in the Washington Post.

“For many years people have been talking about getting rid of debt ceiling altogether and there are a lot of good reasons to do that,” Trump said. “So certainly that is something that could be discussed. We even discussed it at the meeting we had yesterday.”

Under the Constitution, Congress appropriates money, but the federal government doesn’t always bring in enough to cover that spending, so it bridges the gap by issuing debt. Currently, there is a limit on how much the government can borrow, and Congress has to periodically raise that limit to keep the government running.

While lawmakers from the opposing party have often voted against raising the debt ceiling, it was typically more of a protest vote. But under the Obama Administration, Republicans in Congress threatened to not raise it if the President did not agree to certain conditions. These routine showdowns caused investors to become increasingly worried.

Under the deal reached between Trump and Democrats in Congress this week, the debt ceiling will be raised enough to postpone the need for another vote for three months.