Opinion | Are Republicans Willing to Raise the Debt Ceiling?

Still, Democrats may also have to accept that, having failed to get rid of the debt ceiling last year, a future deal with this Republican House will require some spending cuts, too. Democrats could have voted to eliminate the debt ceiling between the fall elections and January, when Republicans took control of the House, or they could have voted to provide the government with sufficient borrowing capacity until the next congressional elections in 2024. Instead they chose this confrontation. Mr. Biden last fall labeled proposals to eliminate the debt ceiling “irresponsible.” Other Democrats appeared to relish the politics of a fight. Now they are facing the consequences, which will most likely include the partial reversal of legislative victories won during Mr. Biden’s first two years.

Should another opportunity arise, perhaps Democrats will take the lesson.

There are sensible alternatives. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, proposed in 2011 that Congress should empower the president to raise the debt ceiling. A group of Democratic senators introduced legislation to that effect this year. Under the plan, a two-thirds vote in both houses could still block an increase.

Abolition would be even more expedient. Congress could simply authorize the government to borrow the funds necessary to make any payments that Congress has separately authorized.

Indeed, some Democrats and liberal groups argue that the administration could get rid of the debt ceiling unilaterally — for example, by issuing special kinds of bonds or even by minting a single, valuable coin. The legality of such measures is uncertain, the consequences unclear.

Administration officials reportedly have also discussed whether the president could assert that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional, because the 14th Amendment requires the government to meet its financial obligations to creditors. This could eliminate the debt ceiling, but the potential for a court fight and financial volatility is significant.

The Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, put it well when she said in 2021 that it would be a crisis simply for the United States to be in a position in which it faced a choice between such experiments and default. She reiterated on Sunday that there are “no good options” if Congress does not act. “We should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt,” she said. “This would be a constitutional crisis.”

There is still time for Congress to act before the United States finds itself confronting those kinds of fateful choices.