Why Biden is wary of using the 14th Amendment to address the debt limit crisis

WASHINGTON — If the fight with Congress over raising the government’s debt limit is such a dire threat, why doesn’t President Joe Biden just raise the borrowing ceiling himself? One potential option Biden and his advisers have been looking at: Would he have the power to go around lawmakers by relying on the Constitution’s 14th Amendment in a last-ditch move to avert default? “That’s the issue.” Biden has viewed the 14th Amendment route as a problematic, untested legal theory to ensure the country can meet its financial obligations. It also includes this clause, which some legal scholars see as relevant to today’s showdown: “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.” Default, they argue, is therefore unconstitutional and Biden would have a duty to effectively nullify the debt limit if Congress won’t raise it, so that the validity of the country’s debt isn’t questioned. During past debt limit showdowns, including talks in 2011 between then-President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, White House and Department of Justice lawyers also flirted with using the 14th Amendment as an emergency solution.