At midnight on December 31st, 2012, the United States would have defaulted on its debt obligations were it not for “extraordinary measures” undertaken by the treasury department to prevent it.

According to the non-partisan Governmental Accountability Office (GAO), failure by Congress to increase the debt ceiling in 2011 led to uncertainty and higher Treasury borrowing costs—costing the taxpayer $18.9 billion over the next ten years.

The debt limit looms large in Fiscal Cliff 2.0 negotiations, and there is a serious risk that the United States will repeat the mistakes that led to the downgrade of our credit in 2011.

Debt ceilings haven’t always been an issue for Congress—they’ve raised the debt ceiling 78 times since 1960. Click here to read a comprehensive history of the debt limit from the Congressional Research Service.

The GAO accurately framed the debt ceiling debate in this July 23rd, 2012 report:

“The debt limit does not restrict Congress’s ability to enact spending and revenue legislation that affects the level of debt or otherwise constrains fiscal policy; it restricts Treasury’s authority to borrow to finance the decisions already enacted by Congress and the President.”

In the report, the GAO concludes that congress ought to consider better ways of coupling spending decisions with decisionsabout the debt limit—ensuring that they foot the bill for expenditures they’ve already authorized.

Congress might be wise to consider just such a bill.