Reply #23: the 14th qualifies "debt"

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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.



"Public debt" has a specific meaning that does not include all of our expenses. It does not even necessarily cover the SS trust fund since that owns "special bonds" rather than "public bonds" and there are accounting gimmicks they used keep the SS trust debt separate from "public debt".

You may be able to argue that where legislation authorizes/requires the president to do things beyond the debt ceiling that legislation is invalid because it violates the 14th amendment combined with debt ceiling legislation. Is the debt ceiling constitutional and does it take precedence over more recent laws? There are a whole lot of arguments that can be made. If Obama goes through the courts to get permission it won't be any time soon. If he unilaterally makes a decision on constitutionality of a law and raises the debt ceiling, it will be really bad for him if the courts were to later disagree.