The Debt-Ceiling Bonanza or Power to the 14th

Let me start by citing the part of the 14^th Amendment that I am going to be referencing in this post.

Section 4 of the 14^th Amendment states:

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.

The reason I started with this is due to the fact that the White House is gearing up for an attempt to bypass Congress, citing this section of the 14^th Amendment, saying that no matter what we cannot default on our debt. They will say that, due to Section 4, if Congress refuses to raise the debt-ceiling (they may even argue the debt-ceiling is illegal due to Section 4's wording) then the President, as a last hope to prevent default, can raise the debt-ceiling with an executive order. This is one hundred percent untrue.

Nowhere in the Constitution is authority given to the President to...

1. Make laws in order to pay the debt of which the nation has accrued.
2. Levy any taxes in order to pay the debts that the nation has accrued.
3. To bypass Congress in order to pay the debts that the nation has accrued.

In fact in Article 1 Section 8 (the part of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to tax, appropriate and regulate commerce) states that Congress (not the President) shall have the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States. The 14^th Amendment doesn't and cannot affect the power that was given to Congress in Article 1.

All the 14^th Amendment does is require Congress to make sure that the debts of the nation are paid and the majority of those that are covered are the bonds held by bondholders. Almost everything else is required to be put on the back burner if necessary to insure that the bondholders get paid. This puts all payments to social programs (because they are not covered) on hold if the United States cannot afford to pay for them and pay the bondholders. Congress can chose to raise taxes to fund all other programs if they chose, but they must make sure the bondholders get paid before a penny goes to anything else. If Congress chooses not to raise taxes, then they are responsible for cutting spending to these programs (even if it means cutting them out all together) till the bondholders get paid. End of story. That is a fact that cannot be disputed no matter how much the White House try's to spin it.

If the debt-ceiling is not raised, the Obama administration would have you believe, that the US will default. Unless our Lord and Savior Obama, sweeps in and raises the debt-ceiling himself, superseding Congress in all his glory, we as a nation are doomed and will go bankrupt. This is simply not true, and no matter how much the administration says it is, it never will be true.

If the debt-ceiling is not raised, Congress will have 2 options left for them to pick from.

First, they can raise taxes, this is what the Dems are pushing (ever though Obama stated that in a recession you don't raise taxes due to the damage it will cause to the economy) for because that is all they seem to know. They don't care about the fact that that will hurt everyone financially during a time that they are already hurting, all they want is the increased revenue coming in to fund their lavish lifestyles. The Republicans don't want this option to be put in place because they understand that no matter who you raise taxes on, the working middle class and the working poor are going to be the ones to suffer in the long run due to inflation on goods and services.

The second option is to reform entitlement spending on social programs and put the responsibility in the hands of the people, not the government. This is the option that the Republicans are pushing for due to the huge amounts of waste and abuse that is rampant in the system. The Democrats don't want this, stating that it will disenfranchise minorities. What this translates out to is this... “We don't want to force these people to have a chance to better themselves by lifting them up and out of the state they are in by giving them personal control of their financial outcome in life.” Therefor the Dems elect to try to keep the people down, therefor making them reliant on the Democrat party to hold their hands since they will never learn to walk on their own.

I'm not saying that the social programs are bad, don't get me wrong there. We are a compassionate society and we take care of those who can't take care of themselves or have fallen on hard times. The problem is we have to many people who are dipping into the system that are very capable, they just don't want to take care of themselves because the government will do it for them. In some cases people will actually lose money if they go off government assistance. But I am getting off the point.

The point being, if the debt-ceiling is not raised we will not default, we cannot default. Congress has to pay the debt one way or another. The only way the this nation will default is if Congress refuses to do the job that they are bound by law to do. The Obama administration needs to stop the fear mongering (Obama stated today that that the government wont be able to issue social security checks on August 3 if the debt-ceiling isn't raised) about what the serious reforms Republicans are proposing to social security and medicare will do, and start talking seriously with Republicans on how to bring these needed changes about as smoothly as possible for all involved. Until Obama gets serious about this problem, the deadline will come and then it will really be time for the hard decisions.

Update:

The Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has proposed this afternoon, a bill that will strip Congress of its power to chose to raise the debt ceiling and turn it over to the President. I cannot put into words how big of a mistake this is. The proposal states that the President can propose a raise to the debt-ceiling up to 3 times a year, provided that he submit a plan with as much in budget cuts as he is raising the debt-ceiling by. Congress then can vote to disapprove the Presidents proposal blocking the raise... or does it? Here is the tricky part... the President can then veto (as long as there was not a veto-proof majority vote) the disapproval resolution and implement the raise without the spending cuts.

This is a stupid proposal on the Senator McConnell's part and any Republicans who vote for this proposal to pass are showing their real colors, they need to be removed from office and replaced with people who are looking out for our best interest. Giving up Congressional power just so you don't have to make hard decisions is a cop out and the American people don't need people like that in power.