US Presidents Raised the Debt Ceiling 42 Times in Recent History — Here’s Who Raised It the Most

John Csiszar Fri, May 19, 2023 ©National Archives and Records Administration

No topic has been hotter in mid-May 2023 than the debt ceiling, even though many people don’t fully understand what it is. In a nutshell, the debt ceiling is a line in the sand regarding the amount that the U.S. government is allowed to borrow. If it is exceeded, the government effectively shuts down.

Without the ability to borrow more money, the government typically can’t pay federal employees, keep federal buildings open or meet its monthly entitlement payments. This means that recipients of everything from Social Security to Medicare and Medicaid may not get paid.

As obvious of a problem as this is, it unfortunately hasn’t prevented the debt ceiling from being something of a political football in recent decades. An important thing to note is that increasing the debt ceiling does not give Congress the ability to go on a new spending spree. Rather, it allows the U.S. to pay the obligations it has already authorized. Thus, much of the political posturing is simply grandstanding.

Typically, tensions rise on both sides of the aisle until an agreement is “miraculously” reached, with Republicans and Democrats patting each other on the back and announcing how great it is to work in a bipartisan fashion. The party in power is always the one in the hot seat, as the opposition party typically leans on the debt ceiling in order to get their own measures passed, knowing full well that the White House will always need to raise the ceiling. But as the deadline approaches on roughly June 1, the fight seems certain to intensify.

As both Republican and Democratic presidents have been in power since 1981, both parties have presided over a rise in the debt ceiling. In all, since President Ronald Reagan first took office in 1981, U.S. presidents have raised the debt ceiling 42 times — with Reagan himself raising the ceiling the most times. Here’s a look at how many times each president since 1981 has raised the debt ceiling, and by how much.

Donald Trump — 2 Times

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