All of y’all are aware of the ongoing “debt limit” negotiations going on between the White House and House Republicans. The short of it — Obama and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner want to raise the debt limit so they can continue to spend our money and drive us off the cliff. If high schools were doing their job then all Americans would know that the House under Article I of the U.S. Constitution has the power of the purse. Geithner, Obama, and some other Democrats have been making noise that the 14th Amendment Sec. 4 authorizes the Executive to raise the debt limit unilaterally. Section 4 says:
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.
I could go into it in detail, but Utah Senator — and former Alito law clerk — Mike Lee (R) delivered this pithy — yet informative beat down to Geithner:
As has been noted repeatedly — we have a President not a King. I don’t think Obama will do this. It just shows how desperate and how illiterate the “Constitutional law professor” is about our founding document — or worse uncaring about what it actually means.
Since when did the POTUS or Mr. Geitner give two hoots in hell what the Constitution says?
We may think we have president, not a king; but, we have a man who wants to be king, not president.