The Debt Ceiling Explained: Why You Should Care

The Federal Debt Ceiling is a looming catastrophe one day and a crisis averted the next. It seems a never-ending cycle. WSJ's David Wessel explains the basics of the debt limit and why you should care.

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[sriontube]

10 years later, nothing changed and the debt ceiling doubled.

[Diabolical]

So what was the point to create a "Debt ceiling" if all we are going to do is lift it or increase it whenever we reach the ceiling..?

[florenciavaldes]

$16 Trillion seems like a lifetime ago, except the same people who carelessly led us to that point have now led us into a $28T mess with no end in sight.

[ScottDuffy]

This is a clear explanation, and should be required watching for all politicians and Americans.

[GhostTraderz]

8 years later and debt ceiling is now almost double at 29Trillion

[Mklpz]

1776 till 2013 $16Trillion
2013 till 2023 $33Trilliin

[clips]

Whos here after we just hit the debt ceiling?

[joehfletcher]

If you can't pay your bills because the credit card company won't extend your credit limit, the problem isn't the credit card company. The problem is your failure to balance your budget.

[Taransidhu]

Video is still very relevant with all the increased fiscal spending in 2020/21

[angelsy]

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

[BravoPerformanceHorses]

It almost sounds like spending more than you make, then covering that spending with loads of debt that you can not repay, then covering that by printing fake money is a bad idea.

[thekingofconsciousness]

16T in Debt was the good ole days... We are just short of double that with no end of this recklessness in sight.... The crash of the dollar will be epic one day :)

[maskedamender]

Anyone else here watching this May 2023 because here we go again?! And apparently it's still very useful and needed info!!

[playlist]

16 trillion Dollars, what a joke! I think we can double that at least... XD

[chaboi]

Who’s coming back to this video from the debt ceiling has just doubled what was in this video

[twe_music]

It's Here BABY... Jun First Back To The Stone Age 🥳

[alexworrell]

When this video came out I was 13 and didn't even understand what an economy was.

Now I'm 21, and am having to watch a video on a problem that's already been a long standing problem for almost a decade, a decade later.

And we keep voting these people in, why?

[rammachiraju]

Here we are playing the same game. Instead of lifting $16T debt ceiling we just got to the double amount $32T in just 10 years. You still think government is protecting you and fiat currency is the way to go?

[moniquewrites]

So I have been paying taxes since I was 19, we have the most millionaires versus any other nation, we have in our back yard companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple, all companies even some nonprofits have to pay taxes and yet we still have a debt EVERY YEAR?!?

[CommandoX]

And, ten years later, in 2023, the debt of the United States is ~twice what it was at the time of this video, 2013 — i.e., ~$32 trillion, versus ~$16 trillion.