Staring at Armageddon of Sorts

Headline: “Biden and congressional leaders may have just 6 working days to find a debt limit solution.” It’s hard to see how this can happen. The solution requires the cooperation of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The key “congressional leader” referred to in the headline is the Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. But to attain that lofty title, McCarthy had to promise the most extreme elements in the Party that he would bend to their will. He is in no position to exercise leadership. Unless Democrats can find five honorable Republicans to defy their party and vote to raise the debt ceiling, default seems highly likely, unless, as a last desperate resort, Biden ignores the debt ceiling limit, citing the authority of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and orders the Treasury to meet U.S. debt obligations, whereupon soon thereafter the issue will be resolved, for better or for vastly worse, by the Supreme Court.