The 14th Amendment Does Not Give Biden The Authority To Raise The Debt Ceiling, It Would Be A Constitutional & Economic Crisis
DEMOCRATS’ LONG HISTORY OF UNDERSTANDING THERE IS NO SUCH AUTHORITY:
- In April 2023, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it is Congress’ “constitutional duty to get this done,” when asked about invoking the 14th amendment on the debt ceiling.”
- In May 2023, KJP said the Administration won’t “entertain scenarios” of invoking the 14th Amendment.
- In May 2023, KJP said, “the President has been really clear Congress must do everything they can to prevent a default. They must do their job. That is the President’s position. And that will — that’s what it’s going to continue to be,.” when asked about Biden’s stance on invoking the 14th Amendment.
- In 2021, then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “believes that it should be a process that Democrats and Republicans move forward on,” when questioned about the 14th Amendment.
- In 2021, Psaki when asked about invoking the 14th Amendment said, “the decision or evaluation been made that there was not a viable option beyond working through Congress.”
- In 2021, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said that “we shouldn’t ever be in that position” to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.
- Senior Biden officials have argued that the 14th Amendment “would be risky and destabilizing.”
- In 2011, a lawyer for the Treasury Department said that Secretary Timothy Geithner “never argued that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows the president to disregard the statutory debt limit.”
- In 2021, Janet Yellen said that “we shouldn’t ever be in that position” to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.
- In 2011, during a Twitter town hall, Obama said that we shouldn’t get to the constitutional issue of the debt ceiling and that congress has always paid its debt in the past when asked if he would use an executive order to invoke the 14th Amendment.
- In 2013, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the Obama-Biden administration “does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the power to ignore the debt ceiling.”
- Carney also said it “would not be a credible alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling, and would not be taken seriously by the global economy and markets.”
- In 2013, Obama said that his lawyers “are not persuaded” that using the 14th Amendment “is a winning argument.”
