There is no analogy, metaphor or correlation a politician somewhere cannot make – a debt limit increase, says Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), is a lot like the Emancipation Proclamation.
You’ve heard of that, right? Where Lincoln freed the slaves. He didn’t wait on no stinking Congressional vote.
“I’ve said time and time again, if the President gets up to August 2nd, without a piece of legislation, he should not allow this country to go into default. He should sign an Executive Order invoking the 14th Amendment and send that to all the governmental agencies for us to continue to pay our bills. He could do that with a stroke of a pen,” says Clyburn.
The 14th Amendment is a pretty sketchy rationalization, though so was nationalized health care. What he’s talking about is an obscure provision, which says “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned.”
“We integrated the armed services by Executive Order. We integrated public schools by Executive Order. Sometimes executives must order that things get done,” says Clyburn. Apparently that includes printing more money. If you’re a fan of believing that the Constitution is whatever each generations interprets it to mean, like Clyburn, that is a pretty good rationalization.