How the Biden administration can slow the GOP’s dangerous schemes

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/10/house-republicans-rules-package-biden/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjEwNjYzNDExIiwicmVhc29uIjoiZ2lmdCIsIm5iZiI6MTY3MzM3MDE1NywiaXNzIjoic3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ucyIsImV4cCI6MTY3NDU3OTc1NywiaWF0IjoxNjczMzcwMTU3LCJqdGkiOiIxOTY4MmMwMy04ZmM2LTRhZTgtODlmOS00ZmY1OTJkMDJmNGEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vb3BpbmlvbnMvMjAyMy8wMS8xMC9ob3VzZS1yZXB1YmxpY2Fucy1ydWxlcy1wYWNrYWdlLWJpZGVuLyJ9.AfGvvoQBRFh8h1Z0QIoxSO8v0_VuoIRSxDsI6d2zzZM

The rules package that House Republicans passed Monday night provides an indication of just how much damage House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has wrought in capitulating to the most extreme members of his caucus. The good news is that the Biden administration can thwart McCarthy’s schemes.

For starters, the House GOP is spoiling for a fight on the debt limit. The rules package eliminates a long-existing parliamentary rule that automatically raised the debt ceiling whenever the House passed a budget. This will empower the House to hold the economy hostage to extract dangerous cuts to national security and crippling reductions in entitlements.
But the White House can defuse the extortionists’ bomb before it is detonated. It should plainly state that the president has the power to ensure Congress does not sabotage the full faith and credit of the United States.

Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution states that Congress has the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts.” It further states that Congress has the power to borrow “on the credit” of the United States. Plainly, the Founding Fathers did not envision lawmakers deliberately refusing payment of debts and destroying the credit of the United States.

But the 14th Amendment makes clear that this power does not include the power to trigger a default. As constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe succinctly tweeted, “The debt ceiling is a misnomer: it does nothing to cap spending but just creates an illusory threat to stiff our creditors.” That’s because “[Section] 4 of 14th Amendment forbids defaulting on the nation’s debts.”