An overall cap on federal debt has been in place since 1939, and Congress has raised it numerous times since then. The Treasury Department counts 78 times since 1960.
The initial limit prior to World War II, by the way, was $45 billion. That may sound small today but was a lot of money at the time 鈥 equal to about half of a year鈥檚 gross domestic product (GDP), the value of goods and services produced by the country.