Bipartisanship In Congress

On the issue of our nation’s debt, Congress has traditionally placed limits, often referred to as a ceiling, on the amount of national debt in dollars the country can accumulate. Before Congress’s passing of the Second Liberty Bond Act during the First World War, Congress would have to painstakingly approve each and every individual case of the Treasury Department issuing more debt. With the increased governmental spending demands brought about by two World Wars and the New Deal, Congress passed the Act to simplify the process of amassing debt by instead setting an overall dollar limit on the national debt. This new mechanism simplified the spending process, and helped ensure fiscal responsibility of the federal government. However, this changed …show more content…
With Congress’s approval ratings in the mid-teens, it is evident that the vast majority of Americans find the deadlock in Congress to be frustrating. It seems appropriate, then, that members of Congress would want to appear to be working across the aisle to solve the yearly debt crisis to garner support from their constituents. Since 1960, Congress has raised the permanent debt ceiling a total of 78 times, with 49 of these increases under Republican administrations and 29 under Democratic administrations. (“Debt Limit”, Treasury.gov) It is clear that debt ceiling increases happen under the control of both parties; it is the ideal bipartisan measure. This level of bipartisanship seems to make the approval of a debt ceiling hike a given. The Economist’s “Democracy in America” blog summarizes it well as “a meaningful threat to block a debt-ceiling hike is simply an arbitrary act of hostage-taking.” (“Two Can Play at That Suicidal Game”, Economist.com) Both sides of the political spectrum are aware of the detrimental effects of the nation defaulting on its debt, and that the debt ceiling debate always ends in its passing. The effects of this bipartisanship are destructive to the debt ceiling’s goal of government responsibility. One negative effect of the policy’s bipartisan nature is the almost-guaranteed passing of the law. This means the debt ceiling, which was created to …show more content…
Much less in tune with the intricacies of Congressional debate and the motives of both sides, the average American is more aware of the economic instability as a result of the debt ceiling debate. Americans and corporations are aware of the detrimental effects of a potential U.S. default on its debt on the world economy. Following the 2011 debt ceiling crisis, Standard and Poor’s lowered the United States’ credit rating from an AAA to an AA+ for the first time in the organization’s history, citing the federal government’s ineptitude at reining in its debt. (John Detrixhe, Bloomberg.com) As a result of this economic uncertainty caused by the almost-yearly threat of default by the federal government, citizens are likely to have a negative opinion of groups in Congress unwilling to raise the debt ceiling and solve the debt crisis for the short term. This phenomenon is clearly seen in the change in favorability ratings for the Republican party, which was the most divided on the debt ceiling issue. The Republican party suffered a 12 point net decline in their approval ratings following the 2011 debt ceiling debate. (Jason Easley, PoliticusUSA.com) This kind of public outlash against a party is the kind of thing Republican party leadership like John Boehner tried to avoid through party discipline towards a bipartisan effort. Because of public opinion, the prime motivator of