No, the system is not designed to be a two step process. The debt ceiling was created to give authority to Treasury to issue debt to X limit so that Congress di

No, the system is not designed to be a two step process. The debt ceiling was created to give authority to Treasury to issue debt to X limit so that Congress did not need to approve every single bond (think of it as a way to keep the separation of powers yet also run government debt in the more efficient manner needed in the modern world versus when the United States had 2.5 million people). It was not created as a Sword of Damocles. It was purely for administrative purposes not to replace actual budgets being created by a clearly incompetent Congress and horrible political class.