evidence: The limit and the debt neared the trillion-dollar level for the first time late in the 1970s. Ronald Reagan made that a major campaign issue in 1980, but while he was in office the limit was raised more than a dozen times and reached $2.8 trillion. [...] Under Bill Clinton, the limit went to about $6 trillion (1997) and under George W. Bush to roughly $11 trillion (2008). The last time a new limit was set under Obama it was $18 trillion (2015) and the last time under Donald Trump it was $22 trillion (March 2019). Thereafter, in the pandemic, Congress suspended the limit so as to spend without even minimal restraint. The debt rose to more than $27 trillion. The current limit, set in 2021, is $31.4 trillion. [...] So how much would all other aspects of the federal government be cut? According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center it would require $1.5 trillion in the first year and $14 trillion over the 10-year target period.