#Is the #Debt #Limit #Constitutional?
The 14th Amendment states that “the #validity of the #public #debt of the United States, #authorized #by #law ... #shall #not #be #questioned.”
Some legal scholars contend #that #language #overrides the #statutory #borrowing #limit, which currently caps federal debt at $31.4 trillion and requires congressional approval to raise or lift.
“The Constitution’s text bars the federal government from defaulting on the debt — even a little, even for a short while,” Garrett Epps, a constitutional scholar at the University of Oregon’s law school, wrote in November. “There’s a case to be made that if Congress decides to default on the debt, the president has the power and the obligation to pay it without congressional permission, even if that requires borrowing more money to do so.”
Other legal scholars say the limit is constitutional. “The statute is a necessary component of Congress’s power to borrow and has proved capable of serving as a useful catalyst for budgetary reform aimed at debt reduction,” Anita S. Krishnakumar, a Georgetown University law professor, wrote in a 2005 law review article.
The president has repeatedly said it is the job of Congress to raise the limit to avoid an economically catastrophic default.
Top officials, including Ms. Yellen and the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, have sidestepped questions about whether they believe the Constitution would compel the government to continue borrowing to pay its bills after the X-date.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/us/politics/debt-limit-us-constitution.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
