The GOP is now united in its opposition to raising the debt ceiling, but in 1983 Republican President Ronald Reagan supported a rise, writing in November 1983 that "the full consequences of a default, or even the serious prospect of default by the United States, are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate"

 

Nor have Democrats always been in favor of raising the limit. In 2006 then-Senator Barack Obama voted against an increase - a vote he later admitted was a mistake. But that didn't stop Representative Michelle Bachmann from tweaking him on her recent "Face the Nation" appearance:

 

"I will say that someone far more eloquent than myself made a very remarkable statement when they said to deal - to even have us at this point where we have to raise the debt ceiling is a failure of leadership. That was Barack Obama, when he was running for the United States presidency. He refused to vote to raise the debt ceiling."

 

Bachmann: W.H. uses "scare tactic" on debt limit