Gary You make a valid point that Congress could decide to "borrow money" when rate are low just to hold a surplus of cash. (It is not clear to me why the government, which can print all the dollars it wants, would borrow in excess from, or sell bonds to, the rest of the world, unless it wants to REDUCE the amount of cash in circulation.)However, such a "debt limit" would not do what the present one does, which is to constrain the ability of the government to borrow enough to cover its obligations that have already been enacted.  My argument is that a limitation that PREVENTS the government for honoring all of its debts is unconstitutional.To get way off topic, the government always has the power to simply turn on the printing presses and pay all its debts with greenbacks, although that might well lead to an inflationary situation.  Printing $31.4 TRILLION dollars, calling all the debt instruments, and paying the debt down to zero would be such a situation.  I do not advocate that solution.

Gary You make a valid point that Congress could decide to "borrow money" when rate are low just to hold a surplus of cash. (It is not clear to me why the government, which can print all the dollars it wants, would borrow in excess from, or sell bonds to, the rest of the world, unless it wants to REDUCE the amount of cash in circulation.)However, such a "debt limit" would not do what the present one does, which is to constrain the ability of the government to borrow enough to cover its obligations that have already been enacted.  My argument is that a limitation that PREVENTS the government for honoring all of its debts is unconstitutional.To get way off topic, the government always has the power to simply turn on the printing presses and pay all its debts with greenbacks, although that might well lead to an inflationary situation.  Printing $31.4 TRILLION dollars, calling all the debt instruments, and paying the debt down to zero would be such a situation.  I do not advocate that solution.

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