WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden said on Friday he was not yet ready to invoke the 14th Amendment to avoid the United States defaulting on its debts as early as June 1, comments which for the first time suggested he has not ruled out the option."I've not gotten there yet," Biden said in an interview with MSNBC when asked about the possibility of invoking the amendment.
This is an uncontested Constitutional issue of Section Four of the 14th Amendment.
The issue would be if POTUS could reserve unto himself the right to control the U.S. debt and the 'debt ceiling'. For my part I agree with Erwin Chemerinsky, professor and dean at University of California, Irvine School of Law, {who} has argued that not even in a "dire financial emergency" could the President raise the debt ceiling as "there is no reasonable way to interpret the Constitution that [allows him to do so]." It would seem to me to impinge on the separation of powers designating budget issues to Congress.
Of course the Congress is much to blame by practicing deficit spending in the first place. Abuse has become horrendous.
Prayer reminder...3:15 Eastern.
Take a minute to pray for our nation and others.
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psa. 4:8
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 fourth section of the Fourteenth Amendment involved making the national debt sacrosanct and repudiating Confederate debt. In Branch v. Haas 7 Va. L.J. 473 (1883), a federal court decided that contracts involving Confederate debt would not be enforced, although contracts that involve Confederate currency are enforceable to prevent injustice to those who were required to accept them during the Civil War. The issue of the repudiation of the United States’ debt came up again in the Gold Clause Cases (1935). In those cases, the Supreme Court held that Congress exceeded its authority by refusing to pay bonds in gold, but that the debt holders could not recover because the damage was only nominal.