[Cincinatus' Wife]

Sounds like CREW and the media are in a push to gin up compliant public opinion when Obama exerts more Executive power through Executive Orders in the face of Republican opposition to his agenda.

[gattaca]

Congress seems to have surrendered the power of spending to the executive branch.

[Timber Rattler]

Section 4 of that amendment states 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."

Yeah, CREW is acting as a front for Obama's minions who are trying to set the stage for his further usurpation of legislative power.

The fact of the matter is that all of this chatter about the 14th Amendment is completely dishonest, since Section 4 has nothing to do with debt ceilings or budgets, but was a Civil War measure to destroy the credit and financial viability of the defeated Confederate States of America, and to also take care of that war's Union veterans. It also voided any potential claims that the Confederacy's creditors (including Britain) might make against the United States after the war.

[PghBaldy]

The progressives at CREW are therefore saying Obama can make law. Soon we will be told he is the law. Obama breeds thuggery and lawlessness. What a nightmare.

[EBH]

CREW argues that such statements are hardly off the cuff, and must be based on an extensive evaluation by White House officials. It's that analysis the group is after. "It is hard to imagine he would publicly insist he lacks authority to act in the face of such a crisis without someone in the administration taking a hard look at the question," Weismann wrote. The group doesn't anticipate the administration will deliver the information readily, but it says it's ready to take the case to court, if need be. "CREW is ready for that," Weismann wrote. "The public needs all the facts as the political posturing begins again on whether and how to increase the debt ceiling in advance of the new February 7, 2014 deadline."

0bama takes this position such that he can create a crisis. As much as his rhetoric claims against this 'crisis' stuff...he himself uses and creates it in order to control the sheeple. He gains far more than just the purse strings ...he gains power.