Robert Reich on how to handle the debt ceiling

 Robert Reich - My advice to Joe Biden: Ignore McCarthy and the Republican radicals. Mr. President, your oath to uphold the Constitution takes precedence. As the supreme law of the land, the Constitution has greater weight than the debt ceiling.

Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states that “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”          

A debt ceiling that prevents the federal government from honoring its existing financial commitments violates the Constitution.

So, if House Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling, you are obligated by the U.S. Constitution and your oath of office to ignore the debt ceiling and continue to pay the debts of the United States.

Should they wish, let the radical Republicans take you to court.

Even the Republican radicals on the Supreme Court will likely support you. No “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution could read that document differently.

The Constitution makes it clear that Congress’s power to borrow money does not include the power to default on such borrowing.