Once again, we have a debate over raising the debt ceiling . Prior to World War I, Congress voted each time the treasury secretary wanted to issue debt. But with the passage of the Second Liberty Bond Act in 1917, Congress set a dollar amount on the debt the Treasury can issue and only has to vote when the Treasury needs to issue additional debt above the set amount.

When called upon to raise the debt limit, Congress has always acted. Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 times either to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit — 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.

While history has shown that Congress eventually raises the debt limit, the debate over the issue brings attention to the massive increase in federal spending and debt that has been occurring. Federal debt has more than doubled in the last 10 years. Today, debt held by the public (not counting intergovernmental holdings of Treasury debt) is $24.6 trillion. Ten years ago, it was $11.9 trillion. It hit a record percentage of gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2020 at 104.6%. While it declined to 93.9% at the end of 2022, that’s a huge jump from 35.6% in the second quarter of 2008.

Unfortunately, the proposal put forth by the Republican House leadership will have little effect on the total debt, as it does little to address that primary federal budget problem: mandatory spending. Seventy percent of federal spending is made up of required spending under law, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This spending will occur in the absence of any annual appropriations. Discretionary spending, which is addressed in the Republican proposal, is now a small proportion of federal spending.

In 1967 discretionary spending made up 73% of total federal spending. In fiscal 2022, it was 29%. Non-defense discretionary spending was only $928 billion out of total spending of $5.86 trillion. The House proposal limits increases in this area of federal spending, but it’s apparent that the long-run solution to our federal debt is dealing with mandatory spending. Total receipts in fiscal 2022 were $4.43 trillion. Mandatory spending was $3.8 trillion, and net interest on the debt was $357 billion.

The major sources of mandatory spending are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In fiscal 2022, total spending on these three programs was $2.53 trillion. There needs to be a plan to address these programs. Unfortunately, the general public is unaware of the intricacies of the federal budget, and making changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will be a major political lift. (For example, witness the public response to increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64 in France.) At the very least, perhaps the debt limit debates can generate awareness that the long-run solution to our debt problem is not a simple one.

Gary Wolfram is the William Simon professor of economics at Hillsdale College and the author of A Capitalist Manifesto.