Since the United States was recognized as a country it has accumulated debt, that has continued to grow. Now the United States has almost $32 trillion dollars in debt accumulated and we have hit the debt ceiling. 

To dive into what the debt ceiling really is, Congress allows the government to borrow a certain amount of money, when reached lawmakers must raise the amount of money needed before the Department of Treasury can allow more government borrowing. 

The debt ceiling was created in 1917, during the first World War I to allow flexibility and since congress had to approve it, it allowed them to check in and oversee the spending. Now over time as explained, we have accumulated debt and kept borrowing, nearly doubling over the last decade. This can be attributed to the pandemic and the financial crisis. This was not the only cause, part of this can also be blamed on the fact that our country consistently runs on a budget deficit. This is when the government spends for than it can recoup. 

A similar occurrence happened in 2011 with the former president, Barack Obama, who decided to implement spending cuts of almost $900 Billion dollars. Since we are experiencing this recurring problem, republicans are pushing to follow the same path our former president did. Democrats are siding against that and are proposing a different solution that has not been released to the public yet.