Reply #21: You're right

[Yo_Mama]

The truth is that we are very able to pay our existing debts. What would actually happen is that we can't run other parts of the government.

But it is utterly pointless, not to mention unconstitutional, because the president doesn't have the authority to raise money, and if Treasury were going out and borrowing more money just on his say-so, there is a good chance that the debt would later be ruled NOT valid debt, and if so, the creditors wouldn't have the same security. Therefore, creditors would treat such a presidential move identically to not raising the debt limit.

Because Congress has the authority to raise money, it doesn't help the President at all to "invoke the 14th" and tell the Treasury Secretary to keep borrowing. The Constitution reserves to Congress to pass a budget (we haven't had one for years), to borrow money, and to raise money via taxation and the imposition of fees. So legally the President can't do all that.

Therefore, the SC would never rule it valid that the President could just borrow money on his own authority, because he does not have the authority to raise the money to pay back the debt, so relying on presidential authority to borrow money is tantamount to defaulting on the debt.