Last year there was an extremely heated debate over the raising of the debt ceiling causing severe animosity across the partisan isle. In an attempt to circumvent the budgetary process, Nancy Pelosi has now proposed an unprecedented expansion of power for the executive branch along with unmitigated spending and debt increases. The Washington Examiner explains:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., thinks that President Obama should unilaterally eliminate the debt ceiling, rather than negotiate with Congress to spend more money when the United States hits the debt ceiling later this year.
“I would like to see the Constitution used to protect the country’s full faith and credit, as the Constitution does,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. She was endorsing the idea that Obama should use the 14th Amendment — which states that “The validity of the public debt of the United States . . . shall not be questioned” — to circumvent House Republicans who want spending cuts in exchange for another debt ceiling hike.
Who knows, though? Obama has already decided to “work his way around Congress,” as he did with last week’s illegal immigration enforcement maneuver.
This is a president who believes he can choose not to enforce federal laws on marriage and immigration and declare when Congress is out of session, even if Congress says it is in session. Maybe he’ll decide to copy-and-paste the authority to borrow money into another section of the Constitution.
