You are missing the fact that one branch cannot Constitutionally ignore a law. If the law states that the Treasury must give 20 bucks to Wal-Mart for ice cream The President can't decide not to pay it. Its the law. IF he did so or ordered someone to do so he is assuming Extra-constitutional authority.
>>You are missing the fact that one branch cannot Constitutionally ignore a law. If the law states that the Treasury must give 20 bucks to Wal-Mart for ice cream The President can’t decide not to pay it.<<
And you are missing the point while by law we will owe the money, in practice, you can’t pay out what you don’t have. Hence, the creditors will still have the money coming to them, perhaps even with penalties for late payment, but some will have to wait for it until we have it.
And if you’re trying to set up the case that this authorizes Obama to unilaterally issue federal debt, forget it. He’s already learned that Congress is a separate, coequal, branch of government. When he finally gets around to reading the constitution that he supposedly taught classes on as an instructor of constitutional law, he’ll discover that only the Congress can authorize new borrowing. No wiggle room in that one.
But I’ll wager the Congress can suspend laws, can’t they?