Posted on 07/22/2011 8:09:00 PM PDT by Steelfish
Obama Should Raise the Debt Ceiling on His Own By ERIC A. POSNER and ADRIAN VERMEULE July 22, 2011
PRESIDENT OBAMA should announce that he will raise the debt ceiling unilaterally if he cannot reach a deal with Congress. Constitutionally, he would be on solid ground. Politically, he can’t lose. The public wants a deal. The threat to act unilaterally will only strengthen his bargaining power if Republicans don’t want to be frozen out; if they defy him, the public will throw their support to the president. Either way, Republicans look like the obstructionists and will pay a price.
Where would Mr. Obama get his constitutional authority to raise the debt ceiling?
Our argument is not based on some obscure provision of the 14th amendment, but on the necessities of state, and on the president’s role as the ultimate guardian of the constitutional order, charged with taking care that the laws be faithfully executed.
When Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, he said that it was necessary to violate one law, lest all the laws but one fall into ruin. So too here: the president may need to violate the debt ceiling to prevent a catastrophe — whether a default on the debt or an enormous reduction in federal spending, which would throw the country back into recession.
A deadlocked Congress has become incapable of acting consistently; it commits to entitlements it will not reduce, appropriates funds it does not have, borrows money it cannot repay and then imposes a debt ceiling it will not raise. One of those things must give; in reality, that means that the conflicting laws will have to be reconciled by the only actor who combines the power to act with a willingness to shoulder responsibility — the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Franklin D. Roosevelt saw this problem clearly, and in his first inaugural address in 1933, addressing his plans to confront the economic crisis, he hinted darkly that “it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us."
I didn’t go to Harvard but, are these guys nuts?
So what’s the surprise. Wholly owned media sources ALWAYS claim dictators have “hidden powers.”
If I’m the Republican controlled House, I say...give it a whirl.
Then I vote to defund every pet project of Obama...starting with ObamaCare.
“the public will throw their support to the president”?????? This is a joke .....right? If he goes against Congress, he’s through and he knows it.
You don’t think Obama had a team of real lawyers look at it. The law means the losing side of the civil war states have to pay the share of the debts of the civil war. ONLY Congress has that Power to raise the debt.
Could you just imagine?
Authors of “Climate Change Justice” too...
Actually, these professors from Harvard and Chicago are considered outstanding scholars by their peers. Of course, that doesn’t make their argument valid. Indeed, it is utterly suspect. The Inherent powers argument is restricted to the field of international relations not domestic issues.
You mean he can’t do this via executive order?
No, they just believe King Obama is the communists dictator of America. And they might almost be right.
The NYT is delusional
A US president raising the debt ceiling “on his own” would not be considered “making a deal”
A US president raising the debt ceiling “on his own” would not be supported by the people, it would be considered tyranny, except by maybe 20%, of the hard core left
especially when he also raised taxes “on his own” to cover the excess debt
and if Congress failed to act against this, then ask what obama would not just do “on his own”?
Articles of impeachment should be drawn up.
But, that would be racist.
Congratulations USA you have a dictator.
Actually the system was designed to avoid such a power grab by a separation of powers creating three separate but equal branches of government: the legislative, the administrative, and the judicial. Or so they told me in eighth grade civics classes.
This argument is not just suspect. Asserted inherent powers can never trump express limitations in the Constitution. In a sane society, the license to practice law of professors who make this argument would be revoked for failure to even understand what law is.
Dems, “What we need is an enableing act to let our leader
lead in the only way he knows is right.”
Folks we are on perlious ground one wrong step and the
descent into the maelstrom begins. Stand tall for what
is right, don’t back down for convience, or aquiessence
for that is to plunge into the depths of horror and
dispare.
Those aren’t law professors, they are make it uppers.
Go ahead Obamao, MAKE MY DAY...
I say let him do it. The bond market would collapse instantly.
Relax... there is no inherent power.... its his inalienable right!
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