Bernie Sanders: The 14th Amendment
From the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders -- The 14th Amendment:
Senator Bernie Sanders spoke during a rare Saturday session. He made case for President Obama lifting the debt ceiling on his own by invoking a provision of the 14th Amendment. "The Constitution is very clear in saying that the debts of the United States ‘shall not be questioned,' Sanders said. "The president swears an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and many constitutional scholars believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the authority and responsibility to pay our debts regardless of the dysfunction in Congress. I think that's just what he should do if he is left with no other way to protect the full faith and credit of the United States." The idea is backed by leading legal scholars and by President Bill Clinton. He said that if he were still in the White House, he would use the amendment and "force the courts to stop me."
And from the Burlington Free Press -- Sanders calls on Obama to lift the debt ceiling with 14th Amendment:
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling on President Barack Obama to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th Amendment.
Section 4 of the amendment states that, “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.”
Sanders, an independent, isn’t fazed by the possibility that using the amendment to bypass Congress on the debt limit could lead to an impeachment vote. He says Americans would thank Obama for dealing with the crisis.
“I suppose if you use the 14th Amendment and Republicans try to impeach him, that’s their right,” he said. “But I would suspect that the average American would say, ‘Given the options, thank you, Mr. President, for making sure that I at least get my Social Security check, that our soldiers get paid, that Medicare continues to function and that interest rates do not go way up.’”
Current law requires congressional approval for raising the debt limit. But former President Bill Clinton has said that if he were still in the White House, he would use the amendment and “force the courts to stop me.”
“I think the Constitution is clear, and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for (expenditures) it has appropriated is crazy,” Clinton said in a July 18 interview with The National Memo.
But Obama has said he does not believe invoking the amendment is a viable option. “I have talked to my lawyers,” he said on July 22. “They are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.”
Sanders said other options for action on the debt limit are “dismal.” He blamed “right-wing extremism” among House Republicans and their “refusal to look at anything that resembles a fair and sensible and balanced approach.”
Bernie will get my vote in 2012, whether he likes it or not! And whatever happens after 2012, I know my conscience will be clear.
Free Bradley.
But Obama has said he does not believe invoking the amendment is a viable option. “I have talked to my lawyers,” he said on July 22. “They are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.”
Take a stand on principle, Barack, that is, if you have any besides kissing the rear ends of your corporate masters. Would it be too much to ask you to actually lead? the very thing we elected you for!?!!
He was a wise man who invented beer.
---Plato
i am glad to see i am not the only one who thinks sen sanders should run as an independent. this debacle and this prez is sickening. i worked on that damn campaign, i am sure many of you did too.... but again he capitulates to the minority, and we progressives are left out in the cold................
PLEASE SEN SANDERS, RUN! the only voice of reason..... i love listening to him on brunch with bernie on thom hartmann..............
man are we screwed.........
"what ever it is, I'm against it. & even if you change it or condense it, I'm against it!".... marx
I love Sanders as well, but I don't trust there's enough actual democrats to pass anything on the off chance that he did win presidency.
years of smears that an Independent (Socialist) couldn't get anything done, because he would have no support, blah, blah, blah. And yet, he kept on plugging along, and getting CONSTRUCTIVE things done, not crap like declaring Glock Gun Day in your state.
I think that now, after both houses of Congress and the POTUS have thoroughly discreditied themselves in this latest train wreck, that more people would both be listening to, and agreeing with him. But he has said he will not run, so maybe he is waiting for more polarization (say, a clown like Bachmann getting elected POTUS) to provide sufficient contrast to make his election a certainty. I voted for him when I lived in VT and talked to him, and he is a very careful politician, in the better sense of the word. I'd love to vote for him again. He will be my write in if no decent Dem or Independent comes forward (forget Obomber, he is a lost cause).
That would be like a terrorist stopping the countdown on a nuclear device before he gets the ransom money.
And while your thinking about "invoking" something, Mr. President, could you try "invoking" that 8th Amendment prohibition on torture? Oops. Sorry. We must look forward, not back, and the Constitution only matters if it is "invoked." It's kinda like your great grand uncle at a séance, right?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Will somebody out there PLEASE wake up? Obama could have had the Republicans
over a barrel any time he wished, and instead he's constantly giving away the store.
Congress has ALREADY authorized BY LAW each obligation represented in
the national debt, by appropriating the funds for various
expenditures, any overall "debt limit" is artificially redundant. It's
like writing a bunch of checks and then refusing to deposit
funds in your account to cover them.
The President Must Invoke 31 USC 3102:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1082.php
It is astonishing that nobody has
bothered to read the text of Public Debt Law of 1941 itself, embodied
in 31 USC 3101, which is what codifies a national debt limit. That
law states that
"The face amount of obligations issued under this chapter and the
face amount of obligations whose principal and interest are
guaranteed by the United States Government (except guaranteed
obligations held by the Secretary of the Treasury) may not be more
than [some arbitrary huge number] . . . "
Please take careful note of the words "EXCEPT guaranteed obligations
held by the Secretary of The Treasury". By undeniably clear law as
passed by Congress, such obligations are NOT constrained by any
so-called debt limit. Now run your finger down
to the very next section 31 USC 3102 [Bonds] and you will read
"With the approval of the President, the Secretary of the Treasury
may borrow on the credit of the United States Government amounts
necessary for expenditures authorized by law . . . "
By this section Congress gives the President the EXPRESS, inherent
and unilateral authority to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to
incur obligations to cover all expenditures authorized by law. And such obligations
are immune from any so-called debt ceiling limitation. Surely there
is some White House attorney smart enough to figure this all out as
we have.
The President must invoke this authority now, as he is fully
empowered to do by 31 USC 3102. And then Congress needs to get
serious about raising the revenues to pay its bills, and not just on
the backs of poor people.
Get this to the desks of the President, Pelosi, and Reid post haste. Seriously.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
...don't you think they already had that information? They were going to go ahead and make this deal no matter what. We were conned into voting for a republican't in a democrat's cloak and it looks like we're stuck with him at least for another year and a half or so.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
would not be applicable.
Which means that he has brought John Yoo back in as a legal counsel and is relying upon the Gonzales' burrowed in young Rethuglican ones for the rest of his advice.
Idiot.
The President is on the GOP side.
I'm so embarassed I was so fervent an Obama supporter. I convinced my whole family, who were big Hillary supporters, that she would govern from the center right like her husband and that Obama would be fairly left.
I am so stupid.
. . . but we were half right. :~(
Corruption favors the wealthy.
He's going to appease this country into oblivion. We are totally at the mercy of the Gas & Oil Party and the TEAliban, and there's no one in Washington -- including the man who's supposed to be our fucking leader -- who is going to stand in their way. We are well and truly fucked.
"Whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, the Republicans are not the least bit interested in solving it. They are interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it."
...now the big banks and big corps. My ass hurts!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
It's the end of America as we know it.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-congress-reach-de...
This is no longer about Obama, this is about the Democratic party's future. Obama has taken his progressive-sheep clothing off to reveal who he really is, now its up to the Democratic party to decide if they want to sacrifice the party for this guy. My feeling is this: Obama's a dead man walking. The Democratic party can delude themselves into thinking this guy can win, and that if we primary him he'll lose. I've got news for them, he's lost already. If the GOP is smart and push aside the Christian dominionist and nominate Romney, Obama's finished. No amount of money and polishing this guy up is going to save his ass, unless the other ticket has Palin or Bachmann.
The most important question is this: Will the Democratic Leadership go down with this president!
You're assuming progressives will let a republican win the White House, simply because they are disappointed in their President. This is certainly what the T-publicans have calculated too. McConnell is counting on you madprogressive, to help him fulfill his commitment to make Obama a one term President.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I will not vote for him is a certainty, and I will not vote at all if a Democrat does not run?
The odious contention that I help a rethuglican win by not voting is like telling me that I don't have a right to complain if I don't vote. Frankly, it is the other way: those who participate in the system are responsible for the crimes committed by America--I just read this morning how Scott Brown won in every district with electronic voting and Coakley won in every district where the votes were counted by hand. That is why those who refuse to participate are the only ones who have the right to maintain dignity, honor and claim the right to be a human being. It can be a non-violent, totally peaceful revolution, if every Democrat, progressive and liberal stays home. The incoming political representatives would have no clothes, no legitimacy and would fail very quickly if every Democrat, progressive and liberal refused to support the lame-duck government and the system would collapse in a bang.
...and if it helps republican'ts put a republican't in the White House, I'm supposed to care about that? There already IS a republican't in the White House and I can't stand him.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
As much as I find Turtle Boy totally repulsive and a disgusting human being in a turtle's body, I agree with him on this one point. Obama should be out at the end of this term.
But McConnell may regret his heart's biggest desire. Because Obomber has turned out to be better for the Rethugs than any run of the mill Dem would be. So if the Dems come up with a decent alternative, like Sherrod Brown, the Rethugs will lose on that one.
Designed to subvert the legislative branch by Dick Armey. His bogus movement offers absolutely nothing constructive or healthy for America. Their entire agenda is subtractive, negative, hurtful.
No wonder Republicans are inspired by bank robbers.
I would like to see Dean, Sanders, or even Jimmy Carter as an alternative to this guy.
Doesn't Senator B. Sanders know that Obama doesn't care what he thinks?
he thinks?
Vote Sanders 2012. Dump the Rethug Obomber. Worst vote I ever made in my 60 years.
Grover Norquist.
Peter Everts
I made the mistake of moving to Texas and having to suffer through the administrations of Bush and Perry. I could have stayed in Vermont and had Bernie Sanders for a senator. Of course the 14th Amendment is the obvious way to go. Issue an executive order increasing the debt ceiling and it is a done deal. Yes, the Tea Poopies would file suit to stop you, but the Supreme Court might go along with it. Then, again, they might not; it would probably depend on what Kennedy had for lunch. In 2012, Obama might look like a White Knight and argue for reelection with the motto, "No Bin Laden, No Default, and No to the Party of No." I will bet you money that the conservatives in both Houses are consulting their attorneys at this moment deciding what strategy to employ should the debt deal go down to defeat, which might now appear to be the case.
"Respect for the rights of others is peace." --Benito Juarez
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