Will Mr. President use the 14th Amendment to pay the bills?

[lonestarnot]

Poll question: Will Mr. President use the 14th Amendment to pay the bills?

[LostInAnomie]

1. Yes

He should plainly state that if the debt ceiling is not raised by Aug. 2, he will apply the 14th amendment and dare the GOP to take him to court over it. They'll either be directly responsible for throwing us into a depression, or they'll let it be.

[TDale313]

2. Should he? Probably yes.

Will he? I doubt it. If there is absolutely no other way, he might as a last resort. But it strikes me as the type of act he'd avoid at just about any cost.

[SoutherDem]

3. Constitutional Scholars can't seem to agree on the 14th

I heard on NPR (think Diane Rehm Show) two "constitutional scholars" from respected universities disagree with what the 14th Amendment actually demands and which things must be paid and which can't be paid.

[elocs]

4. If he invokes the 14th he should not tip his hand; just use it when needed.

And let the Republicans howl. They want him to fail just as the hardcore Republicans all across the nation want him to fail.

If Obama invokes the 14th, even if the Supreme Court overturns his action, there will be a large part of independent middle Americans who will admire his leadership and having the chutzpah to do this.

[murielm99]

5. I agree.

If he does it, he should sign an executive order to use it just before midnight, on August 1, 2011.

He can address the American people in the middle of the night, a few minutes after midnight.

Let the fuckers scream and cry.

[customerserviceguy]

6. He's already sent Geithner out there to say he wouldn't

If he turned around and did it, he would lose what little credibility he has left.

[Fool Count]

7. He won't. Simply because doing that wouldn't help anything.

No reasonable investor would buy debt of questionable constitutional legitimacy which could be declared void by
the Supreme Court a month later. There will be only one buyer for US debt after August 2 - Federal Reserve, so
all retiring USG bonds will have to be redeemed by the Fed with newly printed money (same goes for the interest
payments on current bonds). The inflation it would cause is hard to comprehend. While avoiding a default in
principle, the economic consequences of such action will be far worse than those of a limited technical default.