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Actually, the US can default on its debt
The Hill ^ | 03/08/2023 | DESMOND LACHMAN

Posted on 03/08/2023 6:19:48 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27

As the country heads towards a debt ceiling showdown later this summer, a dangerous idea is gaining currency. It is that the U.S. Constitution makes debt default impossible. This idea risks breeding complacency among our politicians about the economic and financial market dangers associated with the debt ceiling standoff that lie ahead.

The essence of the idea is that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution unequivocally states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned.” If the debt ceiling were breached, so the idea goes, the government would be forced to prioritize debt service payment over regular government expenditures to avoid default. It would have no option but to cut back on its other spending to generate the necessary resources to do so.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: actually; debt; default; us
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To: old-ager

Not without imploding the building...


21 posted on 03/08/2023 8:44:43 AM PST by null and void (Soros funded judges and district attorneys have Detention Deficit Disorder)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

The Obama/Biden administrations have accounted for roughly 18-20 trillion in National Debt of the 31 trillion.

That’s not an accident. That’s a feature.


22 posted on 03/08/2023 8:47:55 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
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To: chopperk

That would mean no more cheap Chinese imports or any cheap imports including oil at all, which would force the US to decouple from globalism. Risky, but not necessarily a bad outcome.


23 posted on 03/08/2023 8:55:58 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: C210N

The blip showing a reduction was in 2000 I think. The Fed Gov ran a surplus one year.


24 posted on 03/08/2023 8:57:12 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: pierrem15

Total Debt today at $31.6 T (Usdebtclock).

Total of the yearly deficits, 1789 thru 2022 at $25.2 T (from WH website table).

In other words, somehow usdebtclock’s figuring adds $6.4 T to the debt, with the inference that we’ve effectively NEVER paid a plug nickle of principle to the Natl debt.

To your point, any single year respite to the adding to the national debt was miniscule or in the noise of the mainstay piling on of additional debt.

This corresponds to Reagan’s Grace Commission report.


25 posted on 03/08/2023 9:14:43 AM PST by C210N (Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.)
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To: Tell It Right

If the chicoms go after Taiwan we will default on the debt to the chicoms and the chicoms will seize all Western assets in China, a trade off.


26 posted on 03/08/2023 9:45:31 AM PST by sarge83
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To: ConservativeInPA

>> . I don’t give two 💩’s about government employees losing their jobs either.

I want to see 85% to 90% of fedgov employees fired.


27 posted on 03/08/2023 10:38:33 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Truth is not hate speech.)
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