(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Steve Benen
thinks so:
President Obama hosted a town-hall event in College Park, Maryland, this morning, and much of the discussion naturally turned to the debt-ceiling fiasco unfolding on Capitol Hill. Of particular interest, though, was an exchange about the so-called “Constitutional Option.” [...] I’m probably reading too much into the text, but I can’t help but note that Obama hasn’t categorically ruled out the constitutional option. He’s said he doesn’t want to rely on this tactic, and he said this morning that the lawyers aren’t “persuaded” this is legitimate, but notice that the president hasn’t gotten around to saying, “No, I reject this approach.”
Is this evidence of Obama leaving himself just a little wiggle room, in case push comes to shove? It’s hard to say with any certainty, but it’s one additional angle to keep an eye on.
I actually do believe President Obama has left the door open to ignoring the debt limit should Congress fail to raise it, but not for quite the same reasons Steve outlines. I also think Obama has never given any indication whatsoever that he intends to take such an approach, and I don't expect him to. However, if he does wake up on August 3 and Congress has not raised the debt limit, I don't think he's completely ruled out the possibility of ignoring it entirely.
Here's what President Obama said:
Now, the gentleman asked about the 14th Amendment. There is -- there's a provision in our Constitution that speaks to making sure that the United States meets its obligations. And there have been some suggestions that a President could use that language to basically ignore this debt ceiling rule, which is a statutory rule. It’s not a constitutional rule. I have talked to my lawyers. They do not -- they are not persuaded that that is a winning argument. So the challenge for me is to make sure that we do not default, but to do so in a way that is as balanced as possible and gets us at least a down payment on solving this problem. [...] But I’m sympathetic to your view that this would be easier if I could do this entirely on my own. (Laughter.) It would mean all these conversations I’ve had over the last three weeks I could have been spending time with Malia and Sasha instead. But that’s not how our democracy works. And as I said, Americans made a decision about divided government. I’m going to be making the case as to why I think we’ve got a better vision for the country. In the meantime, we’ve got a responsibility to do our job.
Again, nothing in that passage indicates President Obama has any interest whatsoever in testing the validity of the debt limit. Quite the contrary. But while he was fairly clear that he was not optimistic about the 14th amendment argument, he also noted that the debt ceiling is not a constitutional rule, rather it's a statutory one.
That's important because if Congress fails to lift the debt limit, President Obama will face a situation where he needs to resolve the conflict between legislation that spends money and legislation that limits the public debt. Obama sees that as a statutory conflict, not a constitutional one, implicitly rejecting arguments that the debt limit is an extension of Article I, Section 8.
While it's clear that President Obama wants Congress to raise the debt limit, I think he's left himself enough wiggle room to ignore the debt limit if Congress fails to act. But there's a big difference between saying he could do it and that he will do it. He may be leaving his options open, but I'd bet heavily against it happening.