Posted on 07/28/2011 9:01:22 PM PDT by BAW
President Obama should invoke the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally as a last resort to prevent a government default, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday.
"It's arguably his power to do so," Hoyer told MSNBC.
"Very frankly, if it came down to his looking default in the eye on Tuesday or taking this action, as President Clinton said, better to take the action and find out later that perhaps he went beyond his authority but at least protected the credibility of the United States of America," he said.
The remarks align Hoyer with a number of other House Democratic leaders, who are urging Obama to invoke the Constitution to prevent a government default if Congress fails to raise the debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
judge nepolitano says there’s nothing there.
if there were, obama would have already used it.
I think he should invoke the Tenth Amendment to balance the budget and forget about raising the debt limit.
The shredding of the Constitution continues.
Clinton calls for “Enableing” law.
That would be grounds for impeachment.
>> “It’s arguably his power to do so,” Hoyer told MSNBC.
It’s a living and breathing Constitution after all. /s
It would be. But it wont happen. Obama will not be impeached. Even if he did. What next? Impeachment means nothing now. Just another sentence in wikipedia. That's all.
Clinton was impeached. Did he step down? Nope.
We have the closest to a Chavez in the WH. The last thing he's going to do is step dowm. If anything, he'll find a way to stay in office beyond his second term.
I’d kinda like to see him try it. Sooner or later, they are gonna cross a line they can’t crawl back over.
Incidentally, it certainly would be grounds for impeachment — and the House MIGHT even have the guts to impeach (if they got rid of Boehner as Speaker). But does anyone REALLY believe THIS SENATE would vote to convict?!
I’ve got 2 words for ya: Snowball — Hades.
14th Amendment sectSection 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disabilityion 3:
Obama is in rebellion against the Constitution, as are most liberals.
Gotta make sure that crony capitalism thrives so they can keep their base alive to give them votes *shakes head*
Someone comes to you and wants to borrow some money. They’ve won the lottery and he’ll pay you back when he cashes the ticket. But there’s a lawsuit over the rightful owner. Would you loan him the money?
How would obama raising the debt limit knowing the courts may rule he wasn’t allowed to do so going to help our credit limit? Plus, if the courts rule against him no bills he paid would be valid. The checks would bounce.
Het Steny,if it’s decided Obama went beyond his constitutional authority then ANY debt acquired by the USA because of his action is null.Translation into real world:Real actual default.NO OOPS sorry. Real default!! Go for it Steny! That would take the heat off the Republians.
What would be certain is a war between Obama and the House, which could result in the defunding of numerous Obama programs.
The Media is going to spin today as the House being threatened by some extreme group, The Tea Party, not allowing for compromise. The truth is the Democrat Party is refusing to compromise with the American People.
Thank you. Good analogy.
Amen to that
Only if the GOP had a spine.
Not sure we've detected one yet.
Only if the GOP had a spine.
Not sure we've detected one yet.
A strange sort of capitalism where the first recourse to competition is to go to the courts, next get congress to legislate anti- competitive regulations and finally have government make doing business so expensive that only the favored cronies who feed at the public trough can survive.
Far from surprising as Joyer believes the General Welfare clause permits government to force you to buy things they tell you to buy (ie health insurance).
I’m not sure why Hoyer made this statement. We’re not going to default on treasury debt or social security payments. There’s plenty of tax revenue flowing into the treasury to pay social security benefits, interest on federal debt, military pay, and to pay for critical federal departments such as the DOJ and the DOD. If we don’t reach an agreement soon, however, most of the other bureaucracies would have to shut down temporarily and payments could be delayed on defense contracts, medicaid, housing subsidies, etc.
A default on US treasury bonds is out of the question and there’s no way that could ever happen unless the White House and Treasury Dept. decided to intentionally default on our treasury debt. But the federal government could go into default on some contracts with suppliers next month, so I hope we finally get some real compromise from the democrats on long-term spending reductions and reach a deal soon on raising the debt limit.
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