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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — This summer was supposed to be a heady time for Republicans, who would be repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, cutting taxes and simplifying the tax code, and reining in the reach of government. But now the party, rife with divisions, faces a familiar fight of its own making: raising the government’s statutory borrowing limit. Once a distasteful but manageable task for Congress, the debt ceiling has become a battle Washington seems unable to escape. By law, Congress must periodically raise the cap on the amount of money that the government can borrow on international lending markets. Republicans transformed the once-routine task of lifting the debt ceiling into high-stakes games of chicken during the Obama presidency — edging the economy toward so-called fiscal cliffs to extract policy concessions such as budget cuts and spending caps. With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the Oval Office, some thought that the debt ceiling would be an easy lift. Instead, it has become an obstacle threatening to further stall an agenda that has already fallen well behind schedule. The Treasury Department wants the debt ceiling raised before Congress leaves for its August recess, a demand that could consume many of the 13 legislative days on the calendar next month. “It’s going to complicate the ability to pass a budget, and it’s going to complicate tax reform because of the internal tensions that they have to struggle with,” said Ed L... Link to the full article to read more