Posted on 07/27/2011 10:19:35 AM PDT by BradtotheBone
House Democratic leaders are calling on President Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling without congressional input.
Addressing the Democratic Caucus Wednesday morning, Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) the third-ranking House Democrat, told members that Obama should veto any short-term debt-limit increase that lands on his desk and use the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally.
“With the same pen that he vetoes that short-term debt-ceiling extension, he should sign an executive order invoking the 14th Amendment” to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, Clyburn told reporters in the Capitol after the caucus meeting.
The Democratic members reacted with applause, according to Rep. John Larson (Conn.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus who also supports the 14th-Amendment option.
Clyburn said that move would “bring calm … and needed stability to our financial markets,” and he compared today’s debt-ceiling debate to the heated 1940s fight over whether to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces. Congress refused to take that step, Clyburn noted, leaving President Harry Truman to take it himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Are we in a dictatorship yet?
It is my understanding that the 14th Amendment does not give the President the authority to do this. The Constitution states that Congress must approve the spending of tax payers money.
A part of me hopes they do it. wer’e gonna give them the same increase witht he Boehner bill. But if they did it unilaterally, the Dems would lose 25-30 seats in the Hosue, and 13+ in the Senate...
Sic semper tyrannis!
(except they say it admiringly)
Yea....go ahead and try that.........see how that works out for you. The march on Washington will make the million man march look like a PTA meeting....
Meh.
Obama = bankrupt America = tyranny as a “necessity” to restore order.
Boehner = more of the same spending practices = the same eventual collapse.
Either way, we’re headed off the cliff. I’m tired of investing time, money, and emotion in republican representatives who are choketastic retards with the backbone of a snail.
Bring on the collapse. The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can begin to rebuild.
Geitner has repeated OVER AND OVER that there is NO 14th Amendment Option that applies here, since CONGRESS controls the purse strings as a separation of powers.
But that hasn’t stopped the Nutjob Lib/Daily Kos Left from screaming for one, anyway.
I continue to be amazed, and have been for years, at how much the whackos on Daily Kos RUN the media/Congress talking points.
The 14th ammendment actually works against Obama. It states we have to continue to pay our debt....fine, there’s enough cash flow to do that. And, I could even wrap my mind around social security payments being considered debt (people paid into a ponzi scheme insurance program, they are owed what was promised). Fine, we can continue to pay that.
What Obama would be left with is a requirement to actually BUDGET the discretionary spending.
Go ahead, ‘invoke’ it.
These Revolutionaries have been pushing for armed rebellion ever since their fraud raised his left hand and swore to preserve protect and defend a Constitution he loathes and violates at will. the carpet baggers want him to invoke the questionable 14th-and worry about the Courts later.when a domestic terrorist is going about setting brush fires you can stand by and watch the fires -and run about trying to put them all out—or you can catch and STOP the firebug. It’s time to stop the terrorist donchathink?
How would a Constitutional crisis bring “calm and order” to the markets?
Ignore the ENTIRE U.S.C. and the Bill Of Rights.
But cite a single clause subject to significant interpretation in a subsequent amendment as if it is iron-clad.
The irony, arrogance and effrontery are breathtaking.
I tend to agree.
Gee. I guess Clyburn thinks he is squatting in some third world toilet in east Africa...
If Obama tries this, he just might have to resign.
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Of course. And don't think Obammie won't do it.
From the other day....
yeppers- if Barky goes for it
His next executive order will be to raise taxes unilaterally to pay for it
Or maybe to seize 401Ks and IRA’s
he can’t raise the debt limit with a pen stroke, and not also be prepared to use a penstroke to come up with a way to pay it
heck, and while he’s at it, why not just declare amnesty for illegals, no use wasting a perfectly good crisis
Art 1 section 8 states that congress is charged with borrowing money on the credit of the Undited States.
14th Amendment section 4 (I believe) simply states all debts of the US are valid....In the context of post civil war reconstruction issues over who (if anyone) would cover creditors claims against the defunct CSA. The US did not cover them, by the way.
the markets have been whistling past the graveyard of our Constitution since the mysterious magic Barky was sworn in- twice - on Jan 20, 2009
Court challenge of a unilateral hike would cause the resulting "debt" incurred via the hike to be declared illegal/null and void. This would actually CAUSE a default, in a sense, because the bond contract would be nullified.
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