Congress raises the debt ceiling, pushing the divisive issue to after the 2022 midterms

Lawmakers in the House have agreed to a deal that will allow the federal government to avoid defaulting on its loans until early 2023.

The House voted 221 to 209 Wednesday to increase the federal borrowing limit by $2.5 trillion.

NPR's Kelsey Snell reports the vote was mostly along party lines; Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois was the only Republican to join Democrats in voting to approve the measure. Pushing the deadline to 2023 likely means whatever party controls Congress after the 2022 midterm elections will decide how to address the federal debt.

The debt ceiling is a frequent issue in Congress as the federal debt grows larger and the two parties continue to diverge on how they believe it should be managed.

If the U.S. were to default on its loans, the government wouldn't have money for federal obligations like Social Security and Medicare and wouldn't be able to pay staff and make purchases.

Plus, it wouldn't be able to pay the holders of Treasury bonds and other securities, and failure to pay those would constitute default. If the U.S. defaulted on its maturing obligations it would make borrowing loans in the future more difficult and expensive, explains NPR's Ron Elving.