Sep 27 2021
Breaching the Debt Ceiling Could Harm Millions of Americans and Produce Economic Devastation
The U.S. economy is again facing the grave threat of a breach of the debt limit. Past debt-limit brinkmanship crises inflicted substantial uncertainty on businesses, drove huge declines in the stock market and consumer confidence and led to higher borrowing costs for taxpayers and consumers. Debt-limit brinksmanship resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and cost the country billions of dollars in lost economic activity, even though a default was ultimately avoided.