ICYMI: Sen. Cruz op-ed in Wall Street Journal: ‘In Case of Emergency, Don’t Break the 14th Amendment’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, penned an op-ed arguing against the theory that President Biden can use Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to circumvent Congress in order to address the debt ceiling.
The op-ed ran in the Wall Street Journal and can be read here.
In the piece, Sen. Cruz wrote:
“President Obama—who, like Mr. Biden, faced a fight with Congress over the debt ceiling—declined to adopt this fringe constitutional theory and instead engaged in the tough work of negotiation and compromise. And Mr. Biden, then vice president, led the discussions that resulted in the Budget Control Act, which was the last significant fiscal restraint we’ve seen. Rather than taking international trips with a debt-ceiling deadline looming, Mr. Biden should follow his own example, roll up his sleeves and sit down at the bargaining table.”
Read the text below:
Imagine this scenario: America, dealing with massive debts and deficits after a period of significant inflation, finds itself having to assure creditors that it nevertheless can and will honor its financial obligations. That was the reality in 1868—and it’s the reality today. Yet the solution some on the left are offering up for our current fiscal debacle would cannibalize the constitutional assurance that Congress ratified nearly a century and a half ago.
In 1868, America had recently concluded a bloody and costly civil war. In the wake of the Union victory, Washington wished to make clear that it would honor its own obligations but not those the Confederacy had incurred. This made sense. Why would we pay England, France and other creditors for their efforts to bankroll a rebellion? This promise to pay for U.S. debts was memorialized in Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which established the validity of American public debt.
Today, creditors need the same assurance after out-of-control spending from multiple administrations has left the U.S. with a staggering debt, especially as we approach the congressionally set credit maximum, or “debt ceiling.”
President Biden must confront this fiscal crisis, but some of the “solutions” his party has offered stretch the Constitution to its breaking point.
Read the rest of the op-ed here.
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