Misunderstanding The Constitutional Option On The Debt Ceiling
In today's New York Times, Lawrence Tribe misses the mark on the argument about the Fourteenth Amendment's requirement that "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall not be questioned. Tribe creates a straw man, declaring that "[s]ome have argued that this principle prohibits any government action that “jeopardizes” the validity of the public debt. By increasing the risk of default, they contend, any debt ceiling automatically violates the public debt clause." No one has argued that as a general proposition. The argument is that "public debt authorized by law" may cause the debt ceiling to violate the Fourteenth Amendment, and in those circumstances, the President MAY be empowered to ignore the debt ceiling law.