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Bill Clinton: I'd use 14th Amendment
Politico ^

Posted on 07/19/2011 6:46:51 AM PDT by Sub-Driver

Bill Clinton: I'd use 14th Amendment

By: Jennifer Epstein July 19, 2011 06:25 AM EDT

Former President Bill Clinton would invoke the 14th Amendment - “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me,” he says - to raise the debt ceiling if he were in President Barack Obama’s shoes, with the deadline to raise the limit just two weeks away.

“I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy,” Clinton said in an interview with journalist Joe Conason.

Clinton said he would turn to the Constitution “if it came to that,” but doesn’t think that Obama will need to. “It looks to me like they’re going to make an agreement, and that’s smart,” he said.

Obama has sidestepped direct questioning about invoking a clause in the amendment to the Constitution that has been interpreted by some to mean that the president has the authority to take all necessary steps to maintain the good credit of the United States. But a lawyer for the Treasury Department has publicly refuted that interpretation, saying that Secretary Timothy Geithner has “never argued that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows the president to disregard the statutory debt limit.”

Clinton said that raising the debt ceiling “is necessary to pay for appropriations already made.” Congressional Republicans, he said, “can’t say, ‘Well, we won the last election and we didn’t vote for some of that stuff, so we’re going to throw the whole country’s credit into arrears.”

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 14thamendment; fourteenthamendment
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To: Maryland Man
Unfortunately for Clinton is the fact-checking. No budget was passed by the previous Congress. The Pelosi-Reid Congress took a ‘pass’ on the responsibility of doing a budget as they were either too busy or lacked the will to do so.

Great Point!!

My torch and pitchfork are ready!
21 posted on 07/19/2011 7:09:53 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (Shaking My Head on a daily basis)
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To: Sub-Driver

How lawless our lawmakers are, it’s almost cartoonish.


22 posted on 07/19/2011 7:11:02 AM PDT by Skeez (O)
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To: Sub-Driver

Will this somehow help BJ continue to be a serial rapist ?


23 posted on 07/19/2011 7:12:58 AM PDT by bodfish ((Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity.))
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To: Red Badger
They didn't pass a budget because they knew that their opponents would use that as a weapon against them in the coming election. That strategy did not work very well............

Yes and then the budget that DEAR LEADER did send to Congress is something that no person with a grip on the current state of the union would send.
24 posted on 07/19/2011 7:13:31 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (Shaking My Head on a daily basis)
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To: Sub-Driver

Right now the treasury has a hard time finding buyers for US debt, it would be impossible to find buyers for any debt issued without the consent of the people (House).


25 posted on 07/19/2011 7:13:56 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: Sub-Driver

Every time this man opens his mouth I am reminded how glad I was on January 20th, 2001.

I have little doubt that if 9/11 happened on Clinton’s watch, he’d STILL occupy the Oval Office today with no prospect of leaving after next year. He would have pushed through an executive order extending his presidency indefinitely and would have dared the courts to argue otherwise. After all, how many divisions has the Supreme Court?


26 posted on 07/19/2011 7:14:18 AM PDT by MWS
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To: Sub-Driver

[[Former President Bill Clinton would invoke the 14th Amendment - “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me,”]]

Clinton _might_ have done that. And, if he did, the courts would have stopped him.

Obama _might_ just try this, as well. But if he does, the courts _won’t dare_ to stop _him_.

Let’s just speculate that they might try. I’d wager that Obama would simply ignore the courts. Really.

His argument would be, “we can’t pull the rug from under the less fortunate, we _must_ help those in need”. And I’ll also speculate that at least 45-50% of the American public would swallow that argument....

Just sayin’....


27 posted on 07/19/2011 7:16:38 AM PDT by Grumplestiltskin (I may look new, but it's only deja vu!)
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To: Sub-Driver

But WHY does Slick say this NOW, interject himself into the race..other than to differentiate Obama from himself ( and by inference, perhaps also Hillary)


28 posted on 07/19/2011 7:16:41 AM PDT by ken5050 (Save the earth..it's the ONLY planet with CHOCOLATE!!!)
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To: Lurker

The entire 14th Amendment should be challanged in federal court. It was added to the Constitution in 1878 by the force of arms of the union army. The South never wanted it and their portion of 3/4s of the states for its inclusion should be discounted.

The 14th Amendment is unconstitutional.


29 posted on 07/19/2011 7:17:32 AM PDT by kjo
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To: Sub-Driver

Congress needs to remember who holds the purse. It’s those pesky checks and balances again and every once in a while someone on the left derides the Constitution and wants to replace it. I wonder why.


30 posted on 07/19/2011 7:20:19 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We deserve the government we allow.)
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To: Falcon4.0
This line of thinking will lead the US down the path trod by Wiemar Germany, Argentina and Zimbabwe. If Obama wants a Road Warrior future, this will get him there.
31 posted on 07/19/2011 7:23:05 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: Eagle of Liberty

The Senate rejected Obama’s budget 97-0.............Even the Dems couldn’t stomach it..................


32 posted on 07/19/2011 7:26:20 AM PDT by Red Badger (PEAS in our time? Obama cries PEAS! PEAS! when there is no PEAS!..........................)
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To: Sub-Driver

There is no doubt the perverted sink stainer use the 14th amendment. Convoluted interpretations of the constitution are part of the liberal mindset. Common sense and intelligent interpretations are anathema to them.


33 posted on 07/19/2011 7:35:46 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: kjo

I don’t think it is unconstitutional, but I wholeheartedly agree that the interpretation thereof has been totally wrong.


34 posted on 07/19/2011 7:38:09 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: kjo

I don’t think it is unconstitutional, but I wholeheartedly agree that the interpretation thereof has been totally wrong.


35 posted on 07/19/2011 7:38:35 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: kjo

I don’t think it is unconstitutional, but I wholeheartedly agree that the interpretation thereof has been totally wrong.


36 posted on 07/19/2011 7:38:35 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Sub-Driver

hey bubba...shut up cigar boy


37 posted on 07/19/2011 7:43:27 AM PDT by kingattax (99 % of liberals give the rest a bad name)
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To: Sub-Driver
Well Bubba does know more about the Constitution than any other disbarred liberal lawyer. Notice how these scumbags love the Constitution selectively.
38 posted on 07/19/2011 7:46:12 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: Sub-Driver
This sexual predator and accused rapist should be talking to us from prison (along with his so-called wife). Too bad he's a spokesman for anything.

I pay no attention to him, her/it, or that grifter in our White House.

39 posted on 07/19/2011 7:50:08 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: Recovering_Democrat

You can say that again.


40 posted on 07/19/2011 7:52:51 AM PDT by BlueYonder
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