That is precisely the identical irrational interpretation they’re using to justify the 14th Amendment which is able to destroy all the pieces and that is much more serious than simply suspending debt payments. By invoking this 14th Amendment, there won’t ever be a debt ceiling and you then could have runaway inflation, taxation, and a whole breakdown in all liberty. The manager can then use executive orders to disclaim Congress even the chance to vote on any spending. The pinnacle of the EU did that to purchase 3 times the variety of vaccines from Pfizer than the population of Europe. And Ukraine put out the propaganda that they’re fighting to preserve democracy? Our Western government killed democracy way back and executive order circumvents all the pieces – it’s the tool of alternative for dictators.
For example the constitutional crisis, Garrett Epps. who was a professor of law on the University of Baltimore until his retirement in June 2020, wrote back on November 22, 2022, claiming that the Structure’s text bars the federal government from defaulting on the debt “even a little bit, even for a short time.” Epps claims that “[t]here’s a case to be made that if Congress decides to default on the debt, the president has the facility and the duty to pay it without congressional permission, even when that requires borrowing more cash to accomplish that.” I attempted really hard to follow his legal argument and I couldn’t with any Strict Interpretation. Quite frankly, he also probably cannot define what’s a girl either.
The Intent behind the 14th Amendment has nothing to do with this argument of default. Britain suspended the gold standard and declared a moratorium on debt throughout the Great Depression. The City of Detroit suspended its debt payments in 1937 and resumed in 1963, yet people insist there was no default. What’s the definition of “default”? That traditionally means the abandonment of all obligations on a everlasting basis. There’s NOTHING within the statutory construction nor within the Structure that will bar a “suspension” of debt payments. Ukraine did that until the US paid all the pieces for them so that they didn’t default.
Taking a look at the 14th Amendment, Section 4 provides that “the validity of the general public debt of the US … shall not be questioned.” The “intent” of that was that the debt incurred by the North was to be the national debt and the Confederate States wouldn’t query having to pay those debts. Nevertheless it continued and made it clear that it could not honor any debts incurred by the Confederal States to fund their war.
As a way to understand what this implies, we must turn to Statutory Construction which begins by FIRST taking a look at the plain language of the statute to find out its original intent. We must take a look at the words to find out the unique intent and apply their usual and peculiar meanings. If after taking a look at the language and the meaning stays unclear, then we must attempt to establish what was the intent of the legislature by taking a look at legislative history and other related sources. Normally, a court must not create an interpretation that will create an absurd result that will be counter to the unique Legislature’s intent.
Epps claims that “Shall not be questioned” doesn’t mean “shall be paid more often than not unless you possibly can rating political points against the opposite party by not paying it.” That’s creating an absurd result and opening the door to the whole collapse of the US. Article I, Section 8 is pretty clear that borrowing and repaying indebtedness are congressional, not executive, powers! Article I can be nullified if the 14th Amendment granted the facility to the president to spend as he wants and to pay all debts when that’s expressly the facility of Congress.
Now we turn to 31 USC §3101 which some try to say is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and subsequently there ought to be no debt limit. Thus far, this statute has proved to be a great tool for forcing budgetary reform geared toward debt reduction.
