No. The Constitution allows Congress to arrange to borrow money, and doesn鈥檛 require any limit on borrowing.
But 鈥淐ongress has always placed restrictions on federal debt,鈥� notes a report this year by the Congressional Research Service. Even before there was a cap on aggregate borrowing, legislators set limits on how much borrowing that could occur, and for what purposes. Behind that stance is a lesson of history: Too much debt can be a dangerous thing, whether it鈥檚 for a person, a business, or a nation.
Mostly, other nations do not have debt ceilings, but that doesn鈥檛 mean they have no policies related to debt. In 2011, a Government Accountability Office report offered up only one nation, Denmark, that sets an official cap on borrowing the way the US does. But nations find other ways to keep watch on debt.
The report said 鈥渙ther countries that we reviewed generally use fiscal rules or targets to increase attention to 鈥� fiscal policy decisions that lead to an increase in debt.鈥� Members of the European Union, it noted, agree to the following targets: total debt no greater than 60 percent of one year鈥檚 GDP, and annual deficits no greater than 3 percent of GDP.
