--- title: Debt Ceiling: Donald Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating It description: President Trump said Thursday that he would be open to eliminating the debt ceiling. canonical: https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-07T18:48:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:20:12.774Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling og:description: "There are a lot of good reasons to do that" og:url: https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa79cb8d96ba93d1/6988dce00a4a22448a9cfcde/gettyimages-843795848.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds Joint News Conference With The Amir Of Kuwait og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling twitter:description: "There are a lot of good reasons to do that" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa79cb8d96ba93d1/6988dce00a4a22448a9cfcde/gettyimages-843795848.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 7, 2017 6:48 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Amir Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait in the Oval Office of The White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Amir Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait in the Oval Office of The White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Pool—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 7, 2017 6:48 PM UTC President Trump said Thursday that he would be open to eliminating the [debt ceiling](http://time.com/4929767/donald-trump-house-passes-harvey-aid-bill/), 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](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/07/trump-schumer-agree-to-pursue-plan-to-repeal-the-debt-ceiling/?utm%5Fterm=.345a662b05e9) 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](https://time.com/nextadvisor/banking/savings/how-to-budget/). Under the [deal reached](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress/trump-sides-with-democrats-on-debt-limit-in-rare-bipartisan-deal-idUSKCN1BH24F) 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling","datePublished":"2017-09-07T18:48:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:20:12.774Z","description":"\"There are a lot of good reasons to do that\"","url":"https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/","keywords":["White House","Congress","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa79cb8d96ba93d1/6988dce00a4a22448a9cfcde/gettyimages-843795848.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa79cb8d96ba93d1/6988dce00a4a22448a9cfcde/gettyimages-843795848.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Holds Joint News Conference With The Amir Of Kuwait","caption":"President Trump Holds Joint News Conference With The Amir Of Kuwait","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4932389/donald-trump-debt-ceiling-eliminate/","name":"President Trump Says He's Open to Eliminating the Debt Ceiling"}}]}] ```