Tweet
Former President Bill Clinton said he would use the 14th amendment to get around the debt ceiling if there was no other option in an interview with the National Memo.
Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation’s debt ceiling “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me” in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline.
The Obama administration has in the past tried to claim this isn’t an option, but there is at minimum a very legitimate difference of opinion among extremely well informed individuals about how the 14th amendment should be interrupted.
There is a very solid legal argument to be made. If the President tries to obey the debt ceiling it could force him to take actions that would violate the Constitution by question the “validity of the public debt of the United States.” When face with violating either statutory law or the Constitution, obeying the Constitution is always paramount.
President Obama has been warning about possible catastrophe August 3rd if the debt ceiling isn’t lifted, but the catastrophe would only happen if Obama actively refused to follow Clinton’s interruption of the Constitution.
4 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Wow, shades of the whole “we can’t use reconciliation to pass health care legislation” bullshit.
A real Democratic president would use this maneuver instead of gutting social spending, and the entitlement programs.
That’s a Bush thing to do, this 14th amendment cr@p. Besides, Presidents don’t declare laws unconstitutional then ignore them. What Pres has done this wout a court case before the SCOTUS?
Let the Bond market teach these GOP & Tea Party dummies a lesson.
Totally agree with you. Obama is far from being a real democratic president. This is not the same man who campaigned for sure. He keeps talking about our “republican friends” – wow. He could have resolved this by using this amendment, but no, as per usual, he will give it all away. He starts out with saying everything he will do, then the talks go to the right from there – it’s horrifying – he put Soc. Sec. on the table! Just hard to believe.