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 ...
This stupid line of thinking has already been eviscerated as totally false. That doesn’t mean they won’t try it, though.
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.
We actually have People and not just Politicians, rooting and cheering for an opportunity to go even farther into debt by TRILLIONS of Dollars.
They are not just spending all of the disposable income of current and future American Tax Payers. They want to spend the entire wealth of every Nation on the Planet.
This is how Wars begin, with Greed, Jealousy and Envy.
You have and I want it!
Use it like ya did a certain blue dress?
BS he’d use Monica.
14th Amendment, section 4:
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. 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 most important part is the phrase "authorized by law". The debt ceiling is the authorization by law. No increase in debt ceiling = no authorization to incur debt. Those bonds would immediately be not covered by the "shall not be questioned". Thus every one will be questioned and subject to litigation. Who in the world would buy those junk bonds knowing that?
I have not seen a single response by libs claiming the 14th amendment means there is no real debt ceiling even try to respond to the "authorized by law" phrase.
No, like a certain cigar.
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............
One could only hope the AnointedIdiot will do such.
Impeachment proceedings come to mind.....
There’s no budget, so Congress hasn’t “appropriated” anything.
Except that I don’t believe he even has the credentials to do that. What a disgrace.
This is typical of liberals. I will break the law deliberately, and force the courts to stop me.
Horn Dog speaks.
....and no vote to hang around their necks like an anchor.............
“No increase in debt ceiling = no authorization to incur debt. “
Actually, that debt ceiling is a useless measure to appease the masses. It has no bearing on law or Congress whatsoever. No Congress may limit the debt of a future congress as no congress may dictate spending to a future congress.
That debt ceiling simply says that is the limit a President may spend regardless of congressional authorization to spend otherwise. In no way does it limit congress.
This is all for show to make this out of control government seem like it is taking the debt seriously so you will vote for them. The fact is, congress can simply approve a new budget regardless of the debt ceiling.
I often wonder what it would take to get the Supreme Court to fast-track something for review.
Seems to me they don’t want to involve themselves in anything.
There’s another part of the 14th amendment I wish they would review.
no constitutional atty here - but the argument is that since the money was appropriated then THAT is the “authorized by law”.
Added is that there was no budget last year.
So can anyone clear this up? I’ve not seen a post that addresses both sides at all.
Does “appropriated” give authorization to spend even though no budget was passed? Does a budget not being passed matter?
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