- The debt ceiling is a cap set by Congress on how much the government can borrow in order to pay its debts.The debt ceiling is important to our economy because it keeps us from spending too much money and getting even more in debt. However it can be bad because it keeps us from spending as much as we need to, so there are more restrictions included. If congress fails to raise the debt ceiling paying our bills wont be possible.The debt limit is the funding for the current debt. This allows the government to get more funds to pay off the debt. The current debt limit as of October 2013 is $16.7 trillion. President Obama wants to raise the debt limit because if we don't we wouldn't be able to pay all our bills. It isn't very different in congress for us to raise the debt limit. In total we have raised it 78 times since 1960.I feel that the politicians haven't been doing the best job. They haven't done much to lessen the debt and if anything have increased it. They haven't resolved many crisis and have put us in a bad position for paying bills.