President Joe Biden said Sunday he would consider using the 14th amendment to solve America’s debt limit, but acknowledged that it was probably too close to the standard June 1 deadline to apply it this round.
“I look at the 14th Amendment as a question of whether or not we have the authority,” he said at a press conference in Hiroshima.
“I think we have the authority.” The question is, would it be possible to do so in a timely manner and claim that no appeal is filed and, as a result, the date in question has passed and the debt still cannot be paid?
Biden said he would be open to exploring the option in court to see if they thought it was legal or not.
The president previously ruled out using the constitutional amendment, which some legal scholars say contains a clause that would make it unconstitutional for the US not to pay its debt, to raise the debt ceiling.
Biden also accused Republicans of trying to derail debt talks to hurt his reelection bid, acknowledged he might be able to stop them from defaulting, and said he’ll step in to make one with Speaker Kevin McCarthe one to negotiate. one.
President Joe Biden opened the door to using the 14th Amendment to solve the debt crisis
How the 14th Amendment applies to US debt
Many legal scholars suggest that a clause in the 14th Amendment stating that “the legal validity of the public debt … shall not be questioned” could be applied to the debt limit.
Legal experts argue that Section 4 of the 14th Amendment allows the Treasury Department to continue to borrow money in excess of the debt limit and that it would be unconstitutional for the US not to make payments.
Some Democrats are urging Biden to invoke the constitutional amendment to prevent the country from defaulting.
In his press conference, Biden delivered harsh language on Republicans, criticizing them for taking an “extreme stance” in the talks and saying he will speak to McCarthy of Air Force One when he flies home from Japan.
“I suspect he wants to negotiate with me directly to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Biden said of McCarthy, adding that he believes a compromise is still within reach.
“I hope Speaker McCarthy is just waiting to deal with me when I get home.” … I’m waiting to find out.
The White House had accused House Republicans of running the talks backwards, turning down their offer to cut spending and instead making outrageous calls for what Democrats are calling a federal budget cut.
Biden, who announced he is seeking a second term, hinted that he thinks politics are at play.
He said if the nation defaulted, “Biden would take the blame, and that’s one way to ensure Biden doesn’t get re-elected.”
He urged Republicans to compromise.
“It’s time Republicans accepted that there is no bipartisan deal that can be made solely – solely – based on their own parts and terms.” “They need to move, too,” he said.
He also expressed some irritation at the other side, saying he couldn’t “guarantee they would force a default by doing something outrageous”.
Earlier debt negotiations faltered when the White House accused Republicans of taking a “huge step backwards” by rejecting their offer, and McCarthy said talks had been put on hold until Biden returned from Japan.
Both sides have accused each other of malicious negotiation as the clock ticks down on June 1 to raise the country’s borrowing limit, currently at $31 trillion, to allow the United States to pay its bills . Otherwise it will be in default of payment.
A war of words broke out over the weekend as meetings between the two negotiating teams were canceled, rescheduled, and then canceled again.
On Saturday, McCarthy said it was the White House that persevered and that talks were on hold pending Biden’s return.
“Unfortunately, the White House has taken a step backwards,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill on Saturday. “I don’t think we can move forward until the President comes back.”
“Just from the last day to today, they’ve taken a step backwards.” “They actually want to spend more money than we did this year,” McCarthy said of the talks.
The White House, which had sounded hopeful that a deal was in the works, released a dovish statement, accusing Republicans of going backwards and choosing a default over a deal.
“The Speaker’s team put on the table an offer that represented a major step backwards and contained a number of extreme partisan demands that could never pass both houses of Congress,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the Explanation.
“It is only Republican leadership, committed to its MAGA wing — not the President or the Democratic leadership — that threatens to plunge our nation into default for the first time in our history unless extreme partisan demands are met.” , she said.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon attend Biden’s press briefing
President Biden accused Republicans of trying to stall debt talks to hurt his reelection bid
Republicans reportedly rejected an offer from the Biden administration that would have kept both nondefense spending and discretionary defense spending flat next year compared to fiscal 2023.
McCarthy said he wants to reduce non-defense spending compared to previous years’ spending.
Democrats argue that maintaining these numbers would equate to an effective cut of up to 5% due to inflation.
The White House argued that in the face of inflation, that would amount to a 5% cut in spending.
President Biden has appointed a negotiating team and has been in regular contact with them throughout his visit to Japan. The White House said earlier Sunday that those negotiators were ready to meet with McCarthy’s team at any time.
“To be clear, the President’s team is ready to meet at any time,” Jean-Pierre said in her statement.
The two sides are at odds over spending cuts. Republicans want them in return for raising the debt ceiling.
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill that would reduce spending to fiscal 2022 levels and cap spending at 1% for a decade. But by the time it got to the Democratic-controlled Senate, it was dead.
The White House has dismissed Republicans’ demands as too extreme, but has agreed to cut some spending.
But when the talks broke down, the attacks intensified.
“Republicans are holding the economy hostage and pushing us to the brink of default, which will cost millions of jobs and could plunge the country into recession after two years of steady job and wage growth,” said Ben LaBolt, White House communications director, on Aug Saturday in a statement.
Biden said he will call Air Force One spokesman Kevin McCarthy on his return trip from Japan
“It was a bad day for the negotiations,” Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson, a McCarthy ally, told Axios, adding that a “lack of seriousness” on the part of the White House “was hampering the progress we made on Wednesday and Thursday.” had made, undermined”.
Since Republicans only have a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives and Democrats control the Senate, any agreement must be bipartisan.
To get there, the spending cuts must be significant enough to be acceptable to conservative Republicans but also acceptable to Democrats, who hold the Senate and likely need between 50 and 100 votes in the House of Representatives.
In addition to spending cuts, Republicans also want to increase defense spending in the 2024 federal budget.
Democrats argue that for this to happen, social programs, education and health care should have borne the burden of the cuts. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party would not support it.
Additionally, Republicans have refused to roll back Trump-era tax breaks for businesses and wealthy households, as proposed by Biden.