The Debt Ceiling Crisis, Continued

Progress has supposedly been made in negotiations, but a familiar refrain issued forth: “The parties are still far apart.” Whatever concessions Republican House Speaker McCarthy might make are likely to be vetoed by the right-wing extremist Representatives at whose pleasure he serves. Theoretically, Biden could avail himself of the provision in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that the validity of the government’s debt shall not be questioned. The debts in this case were authorized by law. The debt ceiling limit amounted to an unconstitutional questioning of the government’s debt. In the past week I’ve read three op-ed articles each by a distinguished Constitutional law professor, one supporting Biden’s right to pay debts without Congress’s sanction, one saying that Biden has no such right, and one saying that the Supreme Court would probably decline to issue a ruling, saying that it’s a political matter. How the right-wing-controlled, ideology-driven Court would rule is anybody’s guess. The situation feels as if it’s headed toward a train wreck.