President-elect Trump’s call to eliminate the debt ceiling could at first glance seem akin to cutting the Gordian Knot — a daring fix for an intractable problem. One can see the appeal of getting past the budgetary paralysis on Capitol Hill. The Constitution, moreover, requires and contains no debt ceiling. It makes clear, though, that only to Congress is granted the power to borrow on the credit of the United States. Only Congress can set a ceiling.

Trump’s call to jettison the legislated debt ceiling — which caps how much America can borrow on the credit of the United States — comes amid a budget stalemate that could lead to a government shutdown. “Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump says. The ceiling is currently suspended until January 1.

In proposing the elimination of the ceiling, Trump would be taking up a cause that, so far, has largely found support on the left. “The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it,” Trump says. “If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge.” With the national debt having just surged past $36 trillion — some 30 percent larger than the economy — the timing is hardly ideal to remove a hurdle to federal borrowing.

The current scale of America’s national debt frantically invites a hard look not only at the federal profligacy that has caused the run-up in red ink, but at the system of fiat money that has enabled all this spending — and borrowing. After all, in 1971, when President Nixon severed the dollar’s last link to gold, the national debt was but $412 billion, just 35 percent of the gross domestic product.

That level of indebtedness was hardly pocket change — but it was child’s play in comparison to the current Pacific of red ink. America’s debt before 1971 was more manageable in part because of the discipline of gold convertibility, required by the gold standard before the Depression and by the Bretton Woods agreement until Nixon abandoned it. Gold imposed a fiscal rigor on both the federal government and the Federal Reserve.

The requirement that dollars be convertible in gold at a rate fixed by law put a brake on excessive spending — and borrowing. When Congress in 1917 created the debt ceiling, it was understood that the dollars being borrowed were a 20.67th of an ounce of gold and were to be repaid at that value. Since then, the dollar has plunged to less than a 2,600th of an ounce of gold — a signal of asset inflation and of the debasement of dollars used to repay U.S. debts.

The debt ceiling itself was a compromise between the legislature and the executive — and a symptom of an earlier debt binge, during World War I. Prior to 1917, Congress retained the power to approve or deny every individual bond issue by the federal government. Such was the Framers’ intention that the Congress, the most political branch, would keep a close eye on federal finances — and the value of America’s money. 

Giving up power over debt issues by setting a borrowing ceiling was lax enough. Removing the limit entirely would amount to an invitation to a feast of borrowing. House Republicans are putting forward a plan to suspend the ceiling for two years, the Hill is reporting this evening, as part of an agreement with Trump. To get a real grip on America’s debt crisis, though, would require the solons to restore an honest dollar, defined by law in gold.