It Increasingly Looks Like Obama Will Have To Raise The Debt Ceiling All By Himself

[babylonsister]

Bring it on!!


http://www.businessinsider.com/it-increasingly-looks-like-obama-will-have-to-raise-the-debt-ceiling-all-by-himself-2013-9

It Increasingly Looks Like Obama Will Have To Raise The Debt Ceiling All By Himself
Joe Weisenthal
Sep. 30, 2013



With no movement on either side and the debt ceiling fast approaching, there's increasing talk that the solution will be for Obama to issue an executive order and require the Treasury to continue paying U.S. debt holders even if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Here's Greg Valliere at Potomac Research:

HOW DOES THIS END? What worries many clients we talk with is the absence of a clear end-game. We think three key elements will have to be part of the final outcome: First, a nasty signal from the stock market. Second, a daring move from Barack Obama to raise the debt ceiling by executive order if default appears to be imminent. Third, a capitulation by Boehner, ending the shut-down and debt crisis in an arrangement between a third of the House GOP and virtually all of the Democrats.

Valliere isn't the only one seeing this outcome.

Here's David Kotok at Cumberland Advisors:

We expect this craziness to last into October and run up against the debt limit fight. In the final gasping throes of squabbling, we expect President Obama to use the President Clinton designed executive order strategy so that the US doesn’t default. There will then ensue a protracted court fight leading to a Supreme Court decision. The impasse may go that far. This is our American way. “Man Plans and God Laughs” says the Yiddish Proverb.

Indeed, back in 2011, Bill Clinton said he'd raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th Amendment rather than negotiate with the House GOP.

This time around, again, Clinton is advising Obama to call the GOP's bluff.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Obama was saying "I will not allow..." at the ACA announcement just now

I think he might!

[Cleita]

3. I hope he does. I'm tired of those wing bats holding him

hostage all the time.

[HappyMe]

4. Yup.

This hostage type situation has gone on long fucking enough.

[Xyzse]

5. It may be time to do so.

I don't know how I really feel about that yet, but I will have to support it.

[Pinkflamingo]

6. The President should not negotiate with domestic TP terrorists.

[babylonsister]

8. That wouldn't be negotiating.

This would be doing the right thing 'despite' the r/w terrorists.

[wandy]

7. Can Obama resolve this by using 14.4................

Let's take a quick look at that part of the 14 th Amendment.......

Validity of public debt

Section 4 confirmed the legitimacy of all U.S. public debt appropriated by the Congress. It also confirmed that neither the United States nor any state would pay for the loss of slaves or debts that had been incurred by the Confederacy. For example, during the Civil War several British and French banks had lent large sums of money to the Confederacy to support its war against the Union.[152] In Perry v. United States (1935), the Supreme Court ruled that under Section 4 voiding a United States bond "went beyond the congressional power."[153]

The debt-ceiling crisis in 2011 raised the question of what powers Section 4 gives to the President, an issue that remains unsettled.[154] Some, such as legal scholar Garrett Epps, fiscal expert Bruce Bartlett and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have argued that a debt ceiling may be unconstitutional and therefore void as long as it interferes with the duty of the government to pay interest on outstanding bonds and to make payments owed to pensioners (that is, Social Security recipients).[155][156] Legal analyst Jeffrey Rosen has argued that Section 4 gives the President unilateral authority to raise or ignore the national debt ceiling, and that if challenged the Supreme Court would likely rule in favor of expanded executive power or dismiss the case altogether for lack of standing.[157] Erwin Chemerinsky, professor and dean at University of California, Irvine School of Law, has argued that not even in a "dire financial emergency" could the President raise the debt ceiling as "there is no reasonable way to interpret the Constitution that [allows him to do so]".[158]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Bolding, mine.

Well, we do have a dysfunctional congress. Somebody needs to take care of business.
Even the dumbest, most brainwashed teabagger (republican) understands that defaulting on the debt would be a BAD thing.
Will it cause impeachment proceedings? Sure it would. Expect it. It's part of the Clinton obstruction plan. It will happen even if Obama's dog laves a calling card on the White House lawn.

The intent of 14.4 is to insure that the US would pay it's debts and continue to operate even if congress found itself unable to perform it's duties.
Thanks to the GOP.co owners and the rupublican bought and paid for 'elected officials', our government has not been this incapable of performing their duties since the Civil War.

Government by blackmail must end. Now!

[geek tragedy]

9. He shouldn't disclose any such intention until the nanosecond he implements it.

Put the pressure on them to do their job.

[badtoworse]

10. Assuming Obama did that, how would such debt be rated?

US debt is rated AA by S&P, but that rating applies to debt that was authorized by Congress (i.e. under the debt ceiling). There is a real question as to whether debt issued under an executive order is constitutional - would it get an investment grade rating?