Everybody knows that this so-called government shutdown
is bull**it. Everybody knows who the actors are and everybody knows why they
are doing the things they are doing. The insane chatter on MSNBC, CNN and all
the other networks is just crap to keep us on edge. The Government is not going
to default on the 17th and everyone knows it.
If the Government does default or gets close to
defaulting, the President could use the 14th Amendment to issue an Executive
Order to keep the government running and stop any default. The Fourth part of the 14th Amendment states:
Section 4. The
validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including
debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United
States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid
of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the
loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims
shall be held illegal and void.
According to Fortune
Magazine's Roger Parloff,
(senior editor ):
The inevitable crisis arises
because the President has a Constitutional obligation to "take care that
the laws ... be faithfully executed," which means spending money at the
levels Congress has mandated. Yet his only source of funds with which to do so
are the revenues Congress permits him to raise via taxes or the funds it
permits him to borrow by issuing public debt. (The Constitution gives Congress
control over all three functions: spending, taxation, and borrowing.) If the President
fails to come up with the requisite money to spend, he'll default on the public
debt in violation of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment.
So
the debt-ceiling law places the President in what Buchanan and Dorf call a
"trilemma," with no way out. Under the Constitution, he can't
default, he can't unilaterally raise taxes, and he can't unilaterally borrow.
In such a predicament, those scholars believe he is obliged to take the
"least unconstitutional" approach, which, for reasons they outline,
they think would be invalidating the debt-ceiling and issuing new
debt -- which they call "Presidential debt," because it
would have no Congressional authorization .
President Obama, a Constitutional scholar and lawyer
knows what time it is. He will absolutely will not allow the Federal Government
to default. The Republican extremists know this and are trying to force his
hand. He is damned if he does let the
government default and he will be damned by using an Executive Order to keep it
running. In fact the entire Federal Government should be damned for taking this
nation into uncharted territory.
If they force the President into a dictatorial position,
he will take it. Unless the Congress negotiates some compromise that will
satisfy the President, he will veto any compromise that is put in front of him.
This is reality. This is what the House of Representatives doesn't seem to
understand. If this was a game of chess, he would have them checked. The 14th
Amendment would be check mate.
This isn't a game that the Administration wants to play,
but if the obstructionists in Congress want to push the boundaries of the
Constitution, they will effectively be in rebellion. If they don't want to play
by the rules that the Constitution requires, than they should be impeached.
This should be the threat that the Senate and the
Executive branch should be using. If these people that sought elective office
don't want to do their jobs, than they should be replaced. I'm sure that the
majority of people in this country feel the same way.
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