Republicans Risk Violating Constitution By Not Raising Debt Ceiling

The United States is constitutionally forbidden from defaulting on its debts. Garrett Epps notes that the president could get up in front of the country to remind Americans, and Republicans, of that. Here’s what he could say:

I take this action to fulfill the oath I took as president of the United States. The Constitution explicitly requires me, under my duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” to meet and pay all debts of the United States.

This requirement is absolute. It is contained in Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment, which directs, in no uncertain terms, that “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.”

This provision makes clear that both the monies our nation owes to bondholders, and the sums promised in legislation to those receiving pensions set by law from the federal government, must be paid regardless of the political whims of the current congressional majority. All obligations that the nation has undertaken by drawing on its credit must at all times be rendered current.

Then, conservatives could tell us how much they love and revere the Constitution.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.