14th Amendment, 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. "
In the news today, House Democrats are said to be imploring Obama to invoke the 14th amendment, whereby he would single-handedly raisde the debt ceiling without Congress.
Unfortunately for those Democrats, they apparently STILL do not have any understanding of the Constitution. The 14th Amendment says the United states must pay its debts. But there are reasons Obama cannot use it to raise the level of debt.
First, it only states we must pay our debts that are ALREADY "authorized by law." - it does not give authority to INCREASE our debt, which is what raising the debt ceiling does. Second, it does not give the President any authority other than to see that the debt gets paid. And here is the crux - the Treasury pulls in enough money every month ($200 billion) to keep paying the debt indefinitely, along with Social Security, Medicare and the military, with $40 billion left over for other less essential stuff. So, as long as the money to pay the debt is available, Obama has no authority to raise the debt ceiling via the 14th Amendment. What the 14th Amendment DOES do is compel Obama and the Treasury to pay the debt FIRST, from the monthly revenues. They cannot decide to default on the debt in order to pay for pet projects.
And here is another eye-opener: failure to raise the debt ceiling will NOT result in default, and the 14th Amendment states that it MUST NOT result in default - the debt must be paid. So, all this fear mongering about default is purse BS, and the Democrats know it. Every month we pull in $200 billion - more than enough to guarantee payment on our debts.
Democrats, wise up - if Obama were to even THINK about raising the ceiling on his own, he would be impeached. And I am certain you do not want that.
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