Debt Ceiling Unconstitutional.

[futurebeachbum]

From the Washington Post article Obama, Democrats not ready to play 14th Amendment card with debt ceiling

Law professors, Democratic senators and liberal commentators have recently raised a tantalizing possibility for ending the congressional wrangling over raising the federal limit on borrowing:

President Obama could simply declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and be done with it.

Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that “[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned.”

I am surprised that this hasn't come up before.

The article goes on to say that the Administration doesn't want to do this.

On Wednesday at a White House question-and-answer session held via the Web service Twitter, Obama said the debate over raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling shouldn’t become a constitutional question.

“I don’t think we should even get to the constitutional issue. Congress has a responsibility to make sure we pay our bills. We’ve always paid them in the past,” Obama said. “The notion that the U.S. is going to default on its debt is just irresponsible.”

The reason that they don't is that the politics around debt ceiling votes are as important to the Democrats as they are to the GOP.

The NYT has a brief history of the politics around the 78 debt ceiling votes that have occurred since 1917 in Frugality Is a Virtue, but Politics Rule the Debt-Limit Fight.

The president needed an increase in the federal debt limit. His partisan adversary, a powerful Ohio congressman, wanted something in return: deep spending cuts.

The president was Richard M. Nixon, the congressman was Charles A. Vanik and the year was 1970. Mr. Vanik, a Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, did not win his $6 billion in spending cuts (equivalent to $34 billion today).

Neither side wants to give up this bargaining chip.

 

[idlewind]

What I do not understand is why not raising the ceiling must result in default. If I hit my credit limit that does not mean I cannot pay my mortgage. I just have to quit borrowing and pay my bills with my income.
The whole thing is a red herring.

 

[poppy]

What I do not understand is why not raising the ceiling must result in default. If I hit my credit limit that does not mean I cannot pay my mortgage. I just have to quit borrowing and pay my bills with my income.
The whole thing is a red herring.

Good grief, our debt is being paid with borrowed money so if we can not borrow more money we will not be able to meet our obligations and will be in default.

 

[idlewind]

Good grief, our debt is being paid with borrowed money so if we can not borrow more money we will not be able to meet our obligations and will be in default.

So we are borrowing money to pay our bills? And the liberal response to this is to add more programs and spend more money. There is a word for that: irresponsible. However, follow my analogy. If you are borrowing from credit to pay your bills and you reach you credit limit, then you default or you cut your spending below the level of your income. Since default would destroy our economy, then I suggest cutting spending below the level of income.

 

[PearlSB4U]

Those who advocate a short, small US default remind me of those who advocated small limited-yield nuclear strikes in Vietnam.

 

[idlewind]

Those who advocate a short, small US default remind me of those who advocated small limited-yield nuclear strikes in Vietnam.

Any default will cripple the economy. That is not an option. cutting spending is.

 

[scooterbug44]

But cutting spending is not enough to keep us from reaching the debt ceiling and defaulting.

We need to increase revenue, cut spending, and raise the debt ceiling.

We've come back from bad debt before, we can do it again.

 

[idlewind]

But cutting spending is not enough to keep us from reaching the debt ceiling and defaulting.

We need to increase revenue, cut spending, and raise the debt ceiling.

We've come back from bad debt before, we can do it again.

The spending cuts must come first. If you examine the history of this issue, congressional leaders always promise spending cuts if we just raise taxes. Taxes are raised and then spending is never cut and the debt continues to rise. After the spending cuts are in effect then begin the process of closing loopholes and reforming the tax code. But is does no good to raise taxes peicemeal with pie in the sky promises of spending cuts. That is how we got in this mess in the first place.

 

[30ashopper]

With no increase of the debt ceiling, you get... no more debt. Once the ceiling is raised, this will continue on it's upward climb.

 

[poppy]