Raise the Debt Ceiling. Obama Don’t Need No Steenking Congress!

According to some senators and constitutional scholars, the entire concept of a national “debt limit” is unconstitutional. Senator Chris Coons (D—Delaware) said:

“This is an issue that's been raised in some private debate between senators as to whether in fact we can default, or whether that provision of the Constitution can be held up as preventing default.”

There’s disagreement over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states:

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

According to legal scholar Garrett Epps:

“This provision makes clear that both the monies our nation owes to bondholders, and the sums promised in legislation to those receiving pensions set by law from the federal government, must be paid regardless of the political whims of the current congressional majority.”

Epps said that if Congress refuses to act, Obama could — and should — instruct the Treasury Department to issue “binding debt instruments on the world market sufficient to cover all the current obligations of the United States government, even in default of Congressional action to meet those obligations.”

Works for me.

And seconding the motion, Bill Clinton is telling the Democrats “Grow a Pair!!!”

Think they will?