By Jamelle Bouie
Opinion Columnist
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The slim — and thus far dysfunctional — House Republican majority is determined to use the debt limit to force spending cuts it can’t otherwise pass into law. “The American people are the ones that’s demanding the cut in spending,” said Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, the new Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, on Fox News last week. “We have to have fiscal reforms moving forward. We cannot just give an unlimited credit card.”
Senate Republicans are also eager to use the debt limit for fiscal retrenchment. “It’s long past time for Washington to end the reckless spending of taxpayer dollars and start living within its means,” said Senator Rick Scott of Florida in a statement. “I look forward to working with House Republicans so we can stop caving to the Democrats, finally end Biden’s raging inflation crisis and bring fiscal sanity back to Washington.”
For her part, Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, said she was prepared to use “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the nation’s bills, although her ability to prevent a default may run out by the start of the summer. It is critical, she said, “that Congress act in a timely manner to increase or suspend the debt limit,” since “failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and global financial stability.”
As for President Biden, the White House says it will not negotiate. “There is going to be no negotiation over it,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said. “This is something that must get done.”
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This is the right approach — there were, after all, no negotiations over the debt limit when Donald Trump was president — but Biden could and should go further than rejecting Republican brinkmanship; he should reject the debt limit itself as an unconstitutional use of congressional power.
The debt limit, remember, is not a limit on spending. It is a limit, instead, on the borrowing authority of the federal government. It represents the total amount of money the Treasury is authorized to borrow to meet the obligations of the federal budget under existing law.
This is an important point. The Constitution directs the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” which is generally understood to be an affirmative duty to carry out the law as written. When Congress authorizes a budget, the president is obligated to fulfill the terms of that budget once he signs it into law. If Congress tells the president to spend $50 billion on a new program through the Department of Health and Human Services, he must spend $50 billion on a new program through the Department of Health and Human Services. He can’t decide, on his own, to cut the program and spend $40 billion instead, or spend $60 billion on a larger program and raise taxes to cover the difference.
“For a President to choose unilaterally to collect taxes in a way not authorized by Congress, or to spend money in a way not authorized by Congress, or to borrow money in amounts not authorized by Congress, violates the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution,” the legal scholars Neil H. Buchanan and Michael C. Dorf explained in a 2012 paper on the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner’s large and newly empowered Republican House majority.
What binds the president even further is that the congressional debt limit does not exist by itself. The Constitution is not silent on the question of the nation’s debt. In addition to carrying out the law as written, the president must also respect the demands of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, otherwise known as the Public Debt Clause, which reads as follows:
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Opinion Columnist
Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.
The slim — and thus far dysfunctional — House Republican majority is determined to use the debt limit to force spending cuts it can’t otherwise pass into law. “The American people are the ones that’s demanding the cut in spending,” said Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, the new Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, on Fox News last week. “We have to have fiscal reforms moving forward. We cannot just give an unlimited credit card.”
Senate Republicans are also eager to use the debt limit for fiscal retrenchment. “It’s long past time for Washington to end the reckless spending of taxpayer dollars and start living within its means,” said Senator Rick Scott of Florida in a statement. “I look forward to working with House Republicans so we can stop caving to the Democrats, finally end Biden’s raging inflation crisis and bring fiscal sanity back to Washington.”
For her part, Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, said she was prepared to use “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the nation’s bills, although her ability to prevent a default may run out by the start of the summer. It is critical, she said, “that Congress act in a timely manner to increase or suspend the debt limit,” since “failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans and global financial stability.”
As for President Biden, the White House says it will not negotiate. “There is going to be no negotiation over it,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said. “This is something that must get done.”
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
This is the right approach — there were, after all, no negotiations over the debt limit when Donald Trump was president — but Biden could and should go further than rejecting Republican brinkmanship; he should reject the debt limit itself as an unconstitutional use of congressional power.
The debt limit, remember, is not a limit on spending. It is a limit, instead, on the borrowing authority of the federal government. It represents the total amount of money the Treasury is authorized to borrow to meet the obligations of the federal budget under existing law.
This is an important point. The Constitution directs the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” which is generally understood to be an affirmative duty to carry out the law as written. When Congress authorizes a budget, the president is obligated to fulfill the terms of that budget once he signs it into law. If Congress tells the president to spend $50 billion on a new program through the Department of Health and Human Services, he must spend $50 billion on a new program through the Department of Health and Human Services. He can’t decide, on his own, to cut the program and spend $40 billion instead, or spend $60 billion on a larger program and raise taxes to cover the difference.
“For a President to choose unilaterally to collect taxes in a way not authorized by Congress, or to spend money in a way not authorized by Congress, or to borrow money in amounts not authorized by Congress, violates the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution,” the legal scholars Neil H. Buchanan and Michael C. Dorf explained in a 2012 paper on the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner’s large and newly empowered Republican House majority.
What binds the president even further is that the congressional debt limit does not exist by itself. The Constitution is not silent on the question of the nation’s debt. In addition to carrying out the law as written, the president must also respect the demands of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, otherwise known as the Public Debt Clause, which reads as follows:
The Public Debt Clause, like the rest of the 14th Amendment, is a direct result of the aftermath of the Civil War, passed in 1866 and ratified in 1868 under the military Reconstruction policies of the Republican Congress.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.
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Opinion | You Can Let Republicans Destroy the Economy or You Can Call Their Bluff
The 14th Amendment offers a blueprint for tearing down the debt ceiling.
www.nytimes.com