Decisions, Decisions
Long-range planning in the Obama White House:
From the White House, National Journal’s Marc Ambinder reports that Obama believes he can get the Republicans to cave on taxes if he first lets the bond markets panic in late-July. Obama then hopes that Wall Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will force Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to compromise, like he did on the FY 2011 budget deal earlier this year.
Outside the White House, more and more prominent Democrats are questioning whether the debt limit is even constitutional. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., became the latest Democrat to raise the argument yesterday. If there is no debt deal, and bond markets do panic, what is stopping Obama from just ordering Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to issue more debt? If Obama can just ignore the War Powers Act, why not the debt limit too?
So the choice is between spooking the bond markets or shredding Article One of the Constitution? Say — why not do both!
Go ahead, make our day. I saw one of these professors bloviating on this, and what he contends is that since the 14th amendment refers to the inviolability of the federal debt, that means we always get to issue more regardless of the law. Let the public and the Supremes that one.
The bond market is much better at manipulating things than being manipulated. My guess is that there would be unintended consequences that would make President Zero wish he hadn’t. JMHO.
Forget gold. I’m buying brass. Things are getting pretty “sporty.”
Unfortunately, I think you are right.
This “debt limit is unconstitutional” meme has a fatal flaw in its logic. It assumes that if we hit the debt limit, then payment must be stopped on the Federal debt. Not so–the President has the option of ceasing expenditures from almost any Federal budget item except “entitlements”. The debt limit does not necessarily mean debt default, and any court would recognize this within 10 minutes of opening statements.
Exactly. In fact, one could argue that to meet the 14th amendment’s language, the administration is precluded from funding even entitlements before servicing the existing debt.