Obama Urged to Use Superpowers to Fight Economic Saboteurs

A few voices on the left are urging Obama to use his constitutional superpowers to invoke the 14th Amendment, thus affirming his right to direct the Treasury to continue paying American debts. We highly doubt he will go this far, nor do we doubt that his critics won't use such an act as opportunity to tag him as whatever evil villain (like Lucifer) happens to be on their minds that day.

So says the Washington Post:

In theory, this is unthinkable, and it will be remedied by reasonable political parties making reasonable concessions across the negotiating table. But Republicans have been negotiating in bad faith, unwilling to compromise even an inch on their extremist and absolutist positions.Some are no longer willing to come to the table at all.

With that backdrop, President Obama may find that there is only one course left to avoid a global economic calamity: Invoke Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which says that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” This constitutional option is one that the president alone may exercise.

If the Aug. 2 deadline arrives and no deal has been made, Obama could use a plain reading of that text to conclude — statutory debt ceiling or not — that he is constitutionally required to order the Treasury to continue paying America’s bills. In that sense, this is not just a constitutional option, it is a constitutional obligation, one even the Tea Party will have trouble denying.

Obama going that route seems a wee bit aspirational, since he also seems inclined to do everything "by the book" no matter what the opposition tosses his way.