"Must Read" for Congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R-NY-19)

From today's Wall Street Journal...

An op-ed by David B. Rivkin, Jr., and Lee Casey, who both served in the Department of Justice during the Reagan administration.

Congressional Republicans debating how to use the government's debt ceiling to control runaway federal spending should examine one of the Constitution's relatively obscure clauses: Section Four of the 14th Amendment.

Section Four can become a powerful hammer for the budget hawks if Congress simply reclaims its constitutional pre-eminence in the borrowing process.

[U]nlike most other sovereign states, the U.S. constitutionally cannot default on its financial obligations. In particular, it must continue to make payments, interest and principal, on its bonds, effectively requiring Congress to provide sufficient authority for that purpose. Consistent with its obligations under Section Four, Congress should promptly increase the debt ceiling, but with one key caveat: The increase can be used only for borrowing to service existing obligations.

REPEAT:

The increase can be used only for borrowing to service existing obligations.

By anchoring this action in a specific constitutional obligation, Congress would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Obama administration to oppose this resolution of the debt-ceiling battle.

REPEAT:

By anchoring this action in a specific constitutional obligation, Congress would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Obama administration to oppose this resolution of the debt-ceiling battle.

(At the same time, Congress should reclaim immediate control of the issuance of all other new debt obligations.)

The Constitution gives Congress power over the national purse, permitting it to tax, to spend and "to borrow money on the credit of the United States."

From the time of the founding until the passage of the First Liberty Bond Act in 1917, Congress itself voted on each and every new government bond issue, specifying the amount to be borrowed and the terms involved.

REPEAT:

From the time of the founding until the passage of the First Liberty Bond Act in 1917, Congress itself voted on each and every new government bond issue, specifying the amount to be borrowed and the terms involved.

Today, exercise of this power has been delegated to the Treasury Department, which generally can borrow up to the debt limit.

[T]his practice can easily be changed.

REPEAT:

[T]his practice can easily be changed.

It wouldn't even be necessary to repeal the existing "debt ceiling" statutory framework, an action that President Obama might well veto. Congress can simply refuse to use it. In other words, Congress cannot renege on debt already incurred, but it can condition, decrease and even stop issuance of new U.S. debt.

NAN - YOU'RE FOLLOWING ALL THIS - RIGHT...? BOEHNER IS AWARE OF ALL THIS - RIGHT....?!?!

This strategy would put Congress's fiscal conservatives very much back in the driver's seat.

(*NOD*)

The need for new government borrowing is constant; currently nearly 40 cents of every dollar the government spends is borrowed. Anytime Congress and the president cannot agree on how new borrowing should be accomplished (and for what purposes), and what additional spending cuts should be implemented to avoid increasing the nation's overall debt burden, spending will simply be cut across the board by 40%. That is one very big incentive for agreement.

AGAIN, NAN... PRETTY ELEMENTARY STUFF! (MAKES SENSE TO ME!)

Of course, were Congress to reclaim this authority and separately approve each new U.S. debt issue, it would once again be directly responsible for government borrowing in a way that it has avoided for nearly 100 years.

(*NOD*) (*APPROVING NOD*)

With political power comes political accountability.

(*ANOTHER APPROVING NOD*)

[T]hat, more than anything else, is what the voters who brought a Republican majority back to the House of Representatives wanted.

YES...!

YES!.. YES!... YES!

This true type of fiscal responsibility would also be far more consistent with the vision of our Founders. They believed that public borrowing was an important governmental tool, but one that should be used sparingly on discreet occasions. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid in the course of its own existence."

(*SOLEMN NOD*)

Today, we are spending with abandon and burdening generations to come. It is up to Congress to end this perfidious practice.

YEEESSS...!!!