Biden's Threat to Raise Debt Ceiling Without Congress Is Constitutional Double Talk

As the United States inches towards its July 4th birthday, the lyrics of the old song “Sixteen Tons” — another day older and deeper in debt — come to mind. Democrat posturing on raising the debt ceiling is beyond pathetic. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) first mocked Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about not having a debt plan, and then presto magic, the House presented him with one. And it is a good one that would lower the debt by $4.5 trillion over ten years, add work requirements back for welfare payments, increase American domestic oil and gas production, and cap spending at 1%. The Senate Democrats’ response so far: crickets.

A study by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity claims this bill alone would add $2.7 trillion in value to the currently languishing stock market. That would restore a portion of the wealth average Americans have lost during the two years of Bidenomics. Some estimates place that loss in Americans’ savings at $7 trillion.

Yet, President Joe Biden, who wouldn’t know the Constitution from the latest issue of AARP Magazine, said he would invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt limit himself. The same 14th Amendment passed to enfranchise the freed slaves? Yes. No need for Congress to even be involved. But isn’t chaining your children and grandchildren in an inflationary spiral of spending and debt with no Congressional oversight a return to the form of slavery we fought a revolution to end? Indeed it is.

Congress exercises what is called the power of the purse. It goes back in our common law to the Magna Carta in England 800 years ago. That led to the creation of a parliament designed to reign in unchecked power by the king. George Washington was a descendant of about 24 of the 25 signers of that document.  Is his successor Joe Biden disavowing that and now claiming more powers than the king and the parliament that kept him in check? Does he really want to be a non-constitutional monarch, or is this just another bit of demagoguery by a corrupt ward boss in some broken-down blue state city?

Here is the section of  the 14th Amendment Biden is hanging his would-be crown on:

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Related: Biden Won’t Rule Out Declaring Debt Ceiling Unconstitutional

How does Biden think he can twist this Civil War-era dough into a pretzel that would negate Congress’s exclusive power to legislate an increase in the debt ceiling? Plainly he can’t. As usual, he remains the reigning king of constitutional gimmicks that don’t work.

The claim that valid debts authorized by law should be paid does not mean that debts can be increased without Congress’s input. Despite all Biden’s double talk, the people and the people’s House still have a say in how money is spent.

Speaker McCarthy needs to hold the line until Democrats in the Senate and the White House negotiate in good faith. And if they do, and debt reduction is tied to an increase in the debt ceiling, we may well see a significant rise in the values of 401(k)s. That would be a welcome relief to Americans. Right now their wages and pensions are being crushed by Biden’s mad inflationary spending — time to rein that in.