Eric Posner calls on the President to act in the debt crisis without involving Congress and tries to build a legal case for Obama to do this.
So in the face of contradictory orders from Congress, President Obama should do what he believes is in the public interest. And if the House refuses to raise the debt ceiling, this surely means some combination of cutting spending, borrowing beyond the debt limit, and perhaps even searching out new sources of revenue.
Will this move us to an imperial presidency and the end of the balance of powers established by the Constitution?
Our Obsolete Constitution! From the Hoover Institution.
Our modern constitutional system seems to be weighed down by non-stop
political crises, from entitlement reform to labor relations. With each
new crisis comes a short-term fix. Over time, these fixes will only
exacerbate the nation’s long-term problem of living beyond its means—for
now, short-term interest rates remain low enough to fund the nation’s
tidal wave of debt.
The Hoover essay is responding to liberal Louis Michael Seidman in the NYT who writes "Let's Give Up on the Constitution."
Seidman writes: This is not to say that we should disobey all constitutional commands.
Freedom of speech and religion, equal protection of the laws and
protections against governmental deprivation of life, liberty or
property are important, whether or not they are in the Constitution. We
should continue to follow those requirements out of respect, not
obligation. But who will determine what parts we follow and what ones we don't?--a benevolent dictator?
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