Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Oh, Good....The Debt Ceiling Is Back

 Matt Yglesias has a nice piece outlining the history of the debt ceiling and the how Mitch McConnell broke the process and appears to be sending us towards a cliff.

My solution? Pass a Joint Resolution of both Houses (50 votes in the Senate) pointing out the text of the Mighty Fourteenth Amendment seems to make the idea of a debt ceiling unconstitutional:

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.

Yeah, yeah, the Courts. But I think the 14th is pretty damned clear and posturing over the debt ceiling is pretty stupid. Yglesias points out how Obama voted against it and then switched when expedient. Given the legislative and political nihilism of the GOP, simply removing this stupid, arcane loaded gun from the equation for all time seems like the best play.

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