https://www.siliconvalley.com/2021/10/04/jill-on-money-debt-ceiling-fight-risks-fiscal-defcon-1/

Like a recurring bad dream, the debt ceiling is back in the news. The periodic political spasm over increasing the amount of money that the government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations is not new, but because it comes on the tail end of a global pandemic, it seems horribly ill-timed.

The Treasury Department underscores that “the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past.” In other words, lawmakers have already agreed to fund everything from tax cuts in 2017 to COVID emergency measures in 2020 and 2021, on top of the ongoing commitments to Social Security and Medicare, military salaries, and interest on the national debt. The Congressional action being contemplated simply makes good on Uncle Sam’s existing obligations.