Some suggest Obama invoke 14th Amendment to overrule Congress
Albuquerque Express Friday 1st July, 2011
• 14th Amendment gives White House authority to over-ride Congress' debt ceiling
• Some experts argue President Obama should use amendment to prevent default
• US government now almost US $200 billion over legal limit
With the US nearing a default on payments if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, some analysts are suggesting President Obama invoke Amendment 14 to overrule the nation’s legislature.
The United States public debt is now almost US $200 billion over the limit imposed by Congress, according to the Web site US Debt Clock.Org. The nation’s current debt is US $14.46 trillion, while the legally-imposed debt limit is US $14.28 trillion.
If the US Congress does not raise the debt limit, the IMF has warned the country may lose its coveted AAA debt rating, while the shock to the economy could be severe to catastrophic.
With negotiations in Congress stalling, some legal experts have suggested President Obama over-ride the debt ceiling entirely, calling the legal limit imposed by Congress unconstitutional.
Legal scholar Garrett Epps and fiscal expert Bruce Bartlett have both pointed out that the White House, the executive, has the constitutional power to over-ride Congress.
“It's not hard to argue that the Constitution places both payments on the debt and payments owed to groups like Social Security recipients...above the vagaries of Congressional politics,” Epps wrote in the Atlantic magazine.
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