It was Wednesday and still no sign of a breakthrough in the current debt ceiling negotiations. Tea party Republicans had told Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, that they would not support any debt limit raise without at least some provision for a balanced budget amendment, which Boehner, seeing that he would not have the votes without tea party support, immediately attempted to redress with a different version of his two-part plan.
The Democrats unveiled their nearly $3 trillion spending cuts plan and have simply allowed it to quietly gather support, if only from other Democrats. And while all of the posturing and demands were going on (mostly in the Republican portion of the House), Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., proposed again, according to the Huffington Post, that if the stalemate cannot be breached, then President Obama should invoke the little known clause in the 14th Amendment of the U. S. Constitution to ensure that the federal government at least pays its debts.
"I am convinced that whatever discussions about the legality of that can continue," Clyburn said after Wednesday's House Democratic Caucus meeting. "But I believe that something like this will bring calm to the American people and will bring needed stability to our financial markets."
There exists at present a strange voting alliance between House Democrats and tea party Republicans flaunting their roughly 100-legislator "nay" voting bloc (unless the legislation is dramatically rewritten to their liking) against the more moderate Republicans led by Speaker Boehner. Not one version of any of the Republican measures thus far has stood a chance of Senate passage.
The Democratic Senate debt ceiling bill , even if passed, would not make it through the House of Representatives due to the tea partyers intransigence at passing any legislation without at least a balanced budget amendment attached.
Yet, they all risk a federal shutdown and the very real possibility of defaulting on the federal debt. If such were to occur, not only would the credit rating on U.S. securities be decreased (causing interest rates to rise across the board), but the instability introduced into the financial markets would likely cause less investment and further market discord throughout the world, most likely sending the U. S. and the world into another recession, perhaps even a depression. Continued inability to raise the debt ceiling so the federal government could operate could potentially undermine the dollar in world markets and jeopardize its status as the world's reserve security.
But South Carolina's Rep. Clyburn and others, like Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-CN), believe that an executive order would be in order -- and Constitutional. Larson stated that the President should know that -- his Caucus is prepared to stand behind him" should he invoke the 14th Amendment.
What is this clause that gives a few Democrats hope against government shutdown and debt default? Section 4: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."
Thus far, President Obama has questioned the advisability of simply ordering the Treasury to pay the nation's debts. The President has insisted on a Congressional compromise, leaving the Constitutionally mandated job of appropriating and authorizing funds to the legislative branch.
Issuing an executive order under such circumstances, although it might be seen as a last-resort approach and necessary by some, would bring with it political pitfalls as well. One such was voiced by Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is also running to replace the President in 2012. She told CNN's "American Morning" Thursday that the President would effectively become a "dictator" should he circumvent Congress.
In the meantime, government shutdown looms.
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