Ahhh, Jon Walker of FireDogLake, how you conveniently save us valuable time with your logic gymnastics so that we don’t have to go looking for a way to pin the debt crisis on President Obama instead of douchebag Republicans.
If we reach August 2nd deadline with no hope of a deal President Obama will have only two choices.
Obama could choose follow the debt ceiling law and stop sending out some checks. Following the debt ceiling law would still mean actually breaking other laws that approved this spending. This is a move that could cause serious economic problems and effectively guaranty Obama lost the 2012 re-election.
Obama could use some means to get around or ignore the debt ceiling. He could mint a trillion dollar coin or use the 14th amendment to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional. Going this route would likely avoid major economic problems.
Using the 14th amendment to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional won’t be so a last minute extralegal contrived plan to avoid economic disaster. It is legitimate option supported by a plain reading of the text, the legislative history of the amendment and endorse by former President Bill Clinton.
Wait for it…wait for iiiiiiiit….
A true default crisis doesn’t just require nihilist madness from Congressional Republicans, it would take a similar level of insanity from Obama.
BAM! Post-coital cigarette time. Not only do we have PUMA lurve with “Big Dog woulda shown these Repunklicans a thing or three boy” but Obama’s insane for not unilaterally declaring MOAR PRESIDENTIAL POWAH and asserting Bush-like “unitary executive” stuff, which the EmoProgs hate President Obama for doing unless it serves their direct present needs.
Now personally, I think there’s merit in using the fourteenth amendment here as a last resort, but the larger point is President Obama should in no way need to go that route at all. The Republicans should vote to raise the debt ceiling as easily as they did under Bush, five separate times…and each time Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell voted yes.
The President should call them out on this and should continue to work towards a deal. If you haven’t noticed…he’s winning. Hmm, come to think of it people who should have noticed the President winning not noticing that, well, kinda the point of the post, eh?
Once upon a time, I claimed I would do link round-up posts every day. We all know how that turned out. So what I’m going to do instead is link posts “whenever the hell I feel like it.”
