Allahpundit
HotAir.com
7/1/2011
Last week it was a theory being kicked around on left-wing websites, today it’s evidently the nuclear option in the White House’s arsenal of debt-ceiling weapons. Go figure.
Congress has raised the debt ceiling no fewer than 74 times in the past 50 years, but now, conveniently, it turns out the president’s inherent power under the Fourteenth Amendment may mean it was up to him all along. Again, go figure.
On a conference call with reporters Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) acknowledged that President Obama may not need Congressional authorization to avoid a default on the national debt. But he noted, too, that the Constitutional debate on this question isn’t ripe enough yet for Obama to take an end run around Congress, even if Republicans refuse to increase the national borrowing limit.
I asked Schumer, a lawyer, whether, in his view, the administration had the power to continue issuing new debt even if Congress fails to raise the debt limit.He acknowledged that the question’s been discussed, but said the White House probably shouldn’t go there just yet.
“It’s certainly worth exploring,” Schumer said. “I think it needs a little more exploration and study. It’s probably not right to pursue at this point and you wouldn’t want to go ahead and issue the debt and then have the courts reverse it.”
The article continues at HotAir.com
Sen. John Cornyn says Obama bypassing Congress on debt limit is “crazy talk.” Really? We have to wonder where the Senator has been for the past two and a half years…
Related: Is a shutdown the Democratic plan to recapture the legislature in 2012?
Also, Is Obama’s End Run Around Congress On Debt Ceiling An Impeachable Offense? :
Not that I’ve been watching closely, but so far I count as least four possible grounds for the impeachment of the president of these United States.
I am not suggesting impeachment proceedings would be a good idea. I’m just keeping score, the same thing the president does.
The latest impeachment ground, if President Obama follows through on it, is his kingly proposal to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling without congressional approval.
Liberals are often impervious to reason, preferring to see the Constitution as authorizing everything they see as good and prohibiting everything they see as bad. “When a crisis occurs, instead of solving it, Democrats use it as an excuse to expand their power,”notes Republican historian Michael Zak.
So it wasn’t terribly surprising the other day when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner waved the Fourteenth Amendment around like a magic wand…
