As the escalating debt ceiling crisis in the United States continues unresolved just days before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is due to declare the US government failing to pay its financial bills, some Democratic politicians and experts have called on President Joe Biden to resort to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which they consider the best way out of the current crisis.
The U.S. Constitution consists of 7 basic articles that clarify the nature of the system of government, the rules separating powers, and the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the state.
Since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, lawmakers have begun to add constitutional amendments, starting with the "Bill of Rights", which includes the first 10 constitutional amendments, and was passed in 1791, and Congress has continued to add constitutional amendments throughout American history, reaching 26 amendments, the last of which was in 1971.
As negotiations continue to address the US debt ceiling and the threat of default approaches, President Joe Biden has reintroduced the controversial idea of using the Fourteenth Amendment as a way to raise the borrowing ceiling without returning to Congress.
Al Jazeera Net offers in a question and answer everything related to the idea of resorting to the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution.
What is the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
The Fourteenth Amendment includes 5 paragraphs, and the fourth paragraph deals with the issue of federal debt, which reads as follows: "The validity of a public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts arising from the payment of pensions and emoluments for services rendered to suppress insurrection or insurrection, shall not be challenged, but neither the United States nor any state shall incur or pay any debt or obligation arising from aiding a rebellion or insurrection against the United States, or facing any claim for loss of any slave or his release, as all such debts, obligations and demands are considered illegitimate and void."
This section was passed after the American Civil War to ensure that slave-retaining states in the South would pay the war debts incurred by the North, and that the government would not be in trouble to obtain reparations to slave owners and others in the South. Some constitutional experts translate this article by saying that it only means today that "the validity of the public debt of the United States may not be challenged."
Has the Fourteenth Amendment been invoked before?
The Fourteenth Amendment had never been invoked before, as no U.S. president had to do so, because Congress had always acted in a timely manner. However, doing so will not avoid questioning the integrity of U.S. Treasuries and will put the nation at risk, former Treasury Secretary Jack Liu, who served in former President Barack Obama's administration, said in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations last month.
Can Biden invoke the Fourteenth Amendment to address the current crisis?
President Biden believes he has the authority to use the amendment to unilaterally address the debt ceiling, but acknowledged that potential legal challenges could lead the government to default if it goes down that path.
Biden told reporters at a news conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan: "I look at the Fourteenth Amendment in terms of whether we have power or not. I think we have the authority, and the question is: can this be done and invoked in time so that it cannot be resumed, and as a result we go beyond the date in question and default on the debt? That's a question that I think hasn't been solved."
Biden added that congressional leaders said at a recent meeting at the White House that they agreed that the nation would not default, suggesting that he hoped talk of the Fourteenth Amendment would not be necessary in the end.
Biden has said he does not see the move as an imminent solution, but several liberal lawmakers in both chambers are pushing him to invoke the amendment rather than capitulating to Republican demands for spending cuts and tax cuts, among other things.
What is the Republicans' position on the idea?
Republicans reject this idea outright and believe that President Biden is required to negotiate a compromise that cuts costs.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, adding, "If you're the leader of the free world, if you're the only president going to the Fourteenth Amendment to look at something like that, I think you're reflecting a kind of failure to work with elected political institutions to get something done."
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said "acting unconstitutionally without Congress is not an option."
What do the Democrats do?
Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as 11 senators, urged President Biden to take advantage of the amendment to avoid a U.S. default. Members of the Progressive Current in the House of Representatives also urged President Biden not to hesitate and not to bow to Republican demands by invoking the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
What is the logic of the proponents of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Some experts, including Lawrence Tribe of Harvard Law School, point out that Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment is a strong basis for arguing that the president has the authority to order the payment of a nation's debt, regardless of the debt limit set by Congress more than 100 years ago.
The oath is designed to remove debt payments from potential partisan wrangling after the North-South war, but it also applies to the broad divide between Democrats and Republicans today, according to Garrett Epps, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oregon, who confirmed that the lawmakers who drafted the amendment considered that once the United States borrows money, it must repay it.
What is the logic of opponents of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Some commentators fear that invoking the Fourteenth Amendment could open the door to potential abuse of presidential power by allowing the executive branch to circumvent Congress, ending forever lawmakers' ability to negotiate with the president over the debt ceiling. This panel argues that Article I of the Constitution returns authority to Congress over the finances of the U.S. state.
The president cannot issue new spending or forgive federal loans without congressional approval, which is what the Supreme Court is challenged by President Biden's student loan forgiveness.
The Treasury Department also has more than enough funds to pay the U.S. state's debt: federal tax revenues in March were $313 billion and interest payments were $67 billion, according to the Treasury Department's monthly report.
In April, revenue was $639 billion and interest was $62 billion, and the peak of fiscal irresponsibility if the Treasury Department failed to use those funds to meet U.S. debt obligations would stop labeling opponents of the Fourteenth Amendment.
What if Biden resorts to the Fourteenth Amendment?
If Biden invokes the Fourteenth Amendment to allow the Treasury Department to borrow above the debt ceiling to repay the government's obligations, it will almost certainly lead to a constitutional crisis and swift legal action. The Chair acknowledged this, saying that he did not believe the amendment would solve the current problem.
What are the alternatives for Republicans if Biden resorts to the Fourteenth Amendment?
Republicans will challenge the president's move in court, and they will see it as unconstitutional, with the final say in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said: "Obviously there will be litigation about that. It's not a short-term solution, it's legally questionable whether this is a viable strategy or not."
"When you think about everything possible we can do, the answer is that there is no good alternative that will save us from disaster. "The only sensible thing is to raise the debt ceiling and avoid the horrific consequences that will come if we have to adopt other options."