The U.S. has once again reached its debt ceiling in the first month of 2023, a limit that Congress last set at $31.4 trillion in 2021. If no action is taken, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the U.S. could potentially face yet another debt-ceiling crisis sometime between July 1 and Sept. 30. The current debate surrounding the national debt limit is not a new one. In fact, the U.S. Treasury notes that since 1960, Congress has acted 78 times to deal with the debt limit. By examining the postwar evolution of the national debt, this post hopes to shed some light on the issue at hand.