Yellen says using 14th Amendment to scrap debt limit would cause a 'constitutional crisis'

Ryan King

May 07, 11:14 AM May 07, 11:14 AM

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeatedly declined to rule out the possibility of declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional if Congress fails to resolve its standoff, but said doing so would be a "not-good" option.

Amid the brinkmanship, some have suggested that President Joe Biden could invoke the 14th Amendment to scrap the debt limit and avert a default. Yellen warned that such action would trigger a constitutional crisis and also stressed that Congress must act quickly to forestall an economic calamity.

REPUBLICANS WORRY THESE THREE CHANGES TO DEBT CEILING BILL WILL SINK FUTURE PLANS

"There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills. And we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis," Yellen said on ABC's This Week.

The 14th Amendment stipulates 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.” However, the Constitution also grants Congress the power of the purse.

Yellen avoided a direct answer about whether such action was off the table.

"If Congress fails to meet its responsibility, there are simply no good options. And the ones that you've listed are among the not-good options," Yellen added.

Biden downplayed the potential use of the 14th Amendment during a recent MSNBC interview.

"I've not gotten there yet," he said.

Yellen also re-upped her well-worn warnings that if Congress fails to up the debt limit, "economic chaos would ensue" that would unleash havoc on both the domestic and global economy. She insisted that there are no more tricks in the department's reserve to buy additional time.

Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), on May 9. McCarthy and Biden last met back in February. The United States rammed up against its $31.4 trillion debt limit back in January, but the Treasury Department has deployed "extraordinary measures" to keep funds flowing in the time since.

Yellen recently estimated that those steps will run dry by June 1, giving Congress less than a month to resolve its differences. So far, neither side has shown signs of blinking, with Biden demanding a clean bill with no strings attached and McCarthy adamant that spending cuts be part of any deal.

WATCH: Byron York claims Trump’s influence is still there, but ‘losing altitude’

Steff Thomas

December 10, 07:00 AM December 10, 07:00 AM

The Washington Examiner's Byron York says former President Donald Trump is still influential with the Republican base, but that influence is slipping.

“I think it’s clear that we shouldn’t overstate this … [but] Trump remains very influential with a really substantial part of the Republican base, maybe as much as half of it,” York said on Fox Business's Cavuto: Coast to Coast.

DESANTIS BEATS TRUMP IN POLL TESTING WATERS FOR 2024 PRIMARY MATCHUP

“That’s the big deal. But there’s no doubt that he’s losing altitude both in the party and in the general electorate,” he told host Neil Cavuto.

The former president has received a surge in criticism following remarks early this month that some widely interpreted as a call from Trump to scrap parts of the Constitution.

"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

When asked what he thought about remarks from GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell (KY), Mitt Romney (UT), and John Thune (SD), York said that his sentiments likely further isolated Trump from the party.

“I think that was just too much even for some of his supporters — and is pushing him further and further into a situation where he has a real hard core of support, but everybody else is kind of ready to move on,” he added.

York pointed out that the bigger factor for Republicans, however, is the fact that he hasn’t been helpful in winning elections.

“If you look at the Senate races, where Trump thought it was important enough to travel to the state and do a rally for an individual candidate, for the candidates who were newcomers, first-time Senate candidates that Trump endorsed and pushed hard, there were 7 of them, and he lost 5,” he explained.

Trump won in Ohio and North Carolina but then lost in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, and most recently, Georgia.

“So Republicans are saying, ‘This is a losing path,’ and I think that has more influence on Republican feelings about Trump than anything,” York quipped, adding that this could also have an influence on his 2024 run.

“There was a belief in some of the early states like Iowa a while back that if Trump were to declare his candidacy, it would clear the field. And that just seems not to have happened now,” he added.

Referencing recent Marquette University polls, York said Trump’s numbers have been weak compared to President Joe Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been floated as a potential Republican candidate to challenge the former president.

“They did a head-to-head matchup between Trump and Joe Biden, and Joe Biden won by 10 points, 44-to-34. They also did a head-to-head matchup between Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis, and it was tied 42-42,” he said.

“So that’s an indication I think of other candidates, other figures, growing in influence in the Republican Party, even as Trump struggles to stay on top,” York added.

Our constitutional structure easily beats our parliamentary competitors

Adam Carrington

November 02, 12:36 PM November 02, 12:37 PM

The parliamentary system will never be as strong as America’s constitutional model because it lacks a true separation of powers.

In a recent piece for National Review, Dan McLaughlin ably defended the benefits of our system in having established terms for presidents and congressmen, as well as the two-party structure our Constitution privileges through the Electoral College. But our system does much more — it also helps our government to run safer and better once our elected officials begin exercising their constitutional duties.

NO ONE CARES THAT BRITAIN'S NEW PM IS NOT WHITE — EXCEPT ANGRY ANTI-RACISTS

The parliamentary structure is found in many governments worldwide besides the United Kingdom and those nations once under its rule. This system does not have a president but instead selects its executive from the ranks of the legislative branch. The parliamentary system, as we now see it, stems from the modern problem of monarchy. In centuries past, a parliament consolidated most of a nation’s legislative power to itself, while the king possessed executive duties.

As theories of popular government gained dominance, the legitimacy of a king exercising real political powers came to be seen as less and less legitimate (the same went for aristocratic bodies such as the English House of Lords). Yet these nations needed an office to wield executive power, so they gradually answered the need in the office of prime minister. The prime minister rose out of the legislative body, exercising executive duties while remaining part of the nation’s lawmaking institution.

By combining legislative and executive into one body, and even one office, this system neglects the insight so central to the U.S. Constitution: that governments should be structured according to the separation of powers. Many know the threat to liberty this combination holds. The French 18th-century political philosopher Montesquieu observed that when the powers of lawmaking and law-enforcing are held within a singular institution, genuine moderation is destroyed — and, with it, liberty.

Separating lawmaking and law enforcement makes the government better at doing its job. The distinct bodies can check each other’s excesses, thereby protecting liberty from government. But they also are created to fulfill their particular roles well, thus promoting a government effective at preserving the blessings of liberty from private threats. Different institutions could be molded with their assigned power in mind. A legislative body could be built around deliberation, helping it to craft laws in thoughtful ways that account for different perspectives and the need for refining legislative ideas. A constitution could establish an executive made for law enforcement, especially the ability to act decisively and swiftly in carrying out a nation’s rules. Separation of powers, therefore, guards us both from tyranny and anarchy.

The wisdom of our Founding Fathers also displays itself in how our president is selected. In addition to the Electoral College that McLaughlin defended, a more fundamental virtue to our system is that our president answers the problem monarchy posed for an independent executive in the age of democracy. The president is not a king. That person is chosen by the people and has no claims to rule by hereditary or divine right. Making the executive a popular one permitted democracy to maintain an independent, powerful executive rather than enfolding the position into the legislative branch.

We should celebrate our Constitution’s structural advantage over a parliamentary system in how it orders elections and thus realizes the consent of the governed. But we also should note its superiority in how that elected government then runs. Our constitutional system of government isn’t outdated. It’s worlds ahead of the competition.

Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.

Liz Cheney blasts celebration for treating Trump ‘as while he ended up a king’

Kate Scanlon

September 20, 12:06 AM September 20, 12:06 AM

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on Monday blasted customers of her have party for what she referred to as dealing with previous President Donald Trump “as although he have been a king” regardless of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and defending him in an investigation into sensitive files observed at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

JAN. 6 COMMITTEE LAWMAKERS ROLL OUT Monthly bill TO Protect against Makes an attempt TO OVERTURN ELECTIONS

Cheney, probably her party’s most vocal critic of Trump, is vice chair of the Home find committee investigating the activities encompassing the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. She was defeated past month in a primary for Wyoming’s at-massive House seat by Harriet Hageman, who Trump endorsed.

In remarks celebrating Constitution Day at the American Business Institute, a conservative believe tank in Washington, Cheney told those in attendance that the Structure “only survives if we acknowledge threats to this flexibility when they occur.”

“And today, we are dealing with this sort of a threat. It truly is a danger we have under no circumstances confronted ahead of — it is a previous president who is attempting to unravel our Constitutional Republic,” she said.

Cheney blasted Trump as “a president who has deserted his oath,” arguing that when “men and girls in positions of community rely on protect the indefensible and make excuses for Donald Trump, they compromise the rules of our Democratic Republic.”

Cheney claimed that excusing Trump's actions erodes rule of legislation and imperils the constitutional purchase.

”Our constitutional procedure has been defended and handed down to us by each individual generation since 1789,” she reported. “It will come to us with a obligation of inheritance. It would not belong to us. It belongs to our youngsters and our grandchildren, and we should not be the technology that allows it to unravel.”

Cheney pushed back again on her Republican critics who say she has abandoned conservatism by defining her conservative positions, pointing to confined government, minimal taxes, and a robust nationwide defense. Cheney stated she is worried about “radical liberalism” and “wokeness.”

“But those worries are unable to justify what the Republican Occasion is undertaking now,” she explained. “The indicates do not justify the ends.”

Cheney provided a strong condemnation of elected Republicans who have defended Trump’s actions surrounding Jan. 6 or have objected to the investigation into the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. She supplied harsh feedback about some Dwelling Republicans she stated backed Trump's unfounded claims about the 2020 election and objected to the certification of the benefits of that election, indicating one that she failed to name complained about "the items we do for orange Jesus."

“No business office is worth keeping if you allow, by means of your action or your inaction, the dismantling of our Republic,” she mentioned. “Does defending Donald Trump now necessarily mean excusing obstruction of justice? How quite a few of our elected officials now are inclined to do that? Bit by bit, excuse by justification we are putting Donald Trump over the regulation. We are rendering indefensible conduct usual, legal, and proper — as though he ended up a king.”

Cheney’s mom and dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynn Cheney, were being in attendance at the speech.

Chilean voters soundly reject considerably-remaining constitution

Brady Knox

September 05, 01:09 PM September 05, 01:09 PM

Chilean voters decisively turned down a proposed considerably-still left structure in a significant blow for Chile's previously ascendant Left, specially President Gabriel Boric.

The proposed constitution, crafted by a coalition of mostly much- and center-remaining candidates, would have been a person of the longest at any time, enshrining over 100 fundamental legal rights throughout 170 pages and 388 articles, according to the Economist. In a obligatory referendum, roughly 62% of voters voted towards the new structure. Not a one one particular of Chile's 16 regions voted in favor. The region will for now retain the Chilean Structure, which was initially drafted below the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

WITH ITS NEW PRESIDENT, CHILE COULD Consider A (Remaining) Change FOR Worse

Among the the additional than 100 essential legal rights proposed in the proposed constitution had been "neurodiversity," "enough, wholesome, enough, nutritionally full and culturally related foodstuff," sexual intercourse instruction, abortion, actual physical activity, "secure and violence-cost-free environments," universal healthcare, absolutely free time, an unfettered appropriate for trade unions to strike, and the suitable for Chileans to develop their “personality, identity and everyday living projects." Autonomous territories would be established up for indigenous Chileans with their individual governing and justice techniques, elected bodies would be required to be composed of "at least" 50% women, the authorities would be required to fight local climate modify, and residence rights would be weakened, according to the New York Moments.

“Chileans’ selection requires our institutions and political leaders to perform more challenging, with far more dialogue, respect, and care, until finally we achieve a proposal that displays us all,” Boric explained in an handle to the country on Sunday. “As president of the republic, I consider this message with good humility. ... We need to pay attention to the voice of the people today.”

The leftist Boric is envisioned to reshuffle his Cupboard and go back again to the drafting phase. Disapproval of his presidency has shot up from 20% in March, when he took workplace, to 53% now, according to the Economist. Escalating disaffection with the ruling leftist coalition, along with the overwhelming rejection of the proposed constitution, may perhaps be signals of an conclude to the great fortunes of a resurgent Remaining that seized electric power pursuing extraordinary mass protests in just one of Latin America's most conservative countries.

Authorities pointed to a wide variety of components they think led to the resounding failure of the new draft, but they mainly centered on the massive number of rights becoming proposed and the alienating conduct of the convention and its supporters.

“How the hell do you vote on a constitution with 388 content?” Chilean political scientist Gabriel Negretto told the New York Moments. “You are mind-boggling voters.”

The convention members ended up appointed by a Leftist coalition, like Chile's Communist Celebration, which was voted in previous 12 months, at the top of the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in numerous more mature, conservative voters staying home, according to the Economist. Voter turnout was just 42%.

The actions of the conference was especially singled out as an alienating issue to Chileans. The proclamation by just one member that the Still left was “going to make the large agreements, and every person else will have to sign up for us," outraged individuals who weren't explicitly a section of Chile's Still left, in accordance to the Economist. The considerably-left associates of the conference had been also susceptible to disrespecting Chile's countrywide symbols, this kind of as when some associates shouted more than the orchestra participating in Chile's national anthem throughout the convention's opening.

Click Below FOR A lot more FROM THE

A person specially alienating effectiveness occurred in the city of Valparaiso just a 7 days ahead of the vote at an event in favor of the new constitution when "a drag queen had the national flag pulled out of his rectum though his bandmates inspired the viewers to 'abort Chile,'” according to the Economist, ensuing in common outrage.

Adhering to the announcement of the new draft's defeat, huge crowds of opponents took to the streets in celebration. In one particular especially jubilant celebration, a chant broke out, saying, "Whoever won't leap is a communist!"