Obama's Final Loophole: The "Catastrophic Emergency" Clause?

[Ruby the Liberal]

Politico's Ben White has pointed out something interesting, namely that while the 14th Amendment may or may not be practical under the current situation (especially not without a full blown constitutional crisis), one potential loophole that Obama may have comes from none other than former president Bush, in the form of the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-20, one which deals with such trivia as "Catastrophic Emergency", "Continuity of Government", "Continuity of Operations", and lastly, and perhaps somewhat ironically, "Enduring Constitutional Government." Considering the amount of doom and gloom spun by the government is bigger than anything seen even under Hank Paulson, could this "crisis" be interpreted by the constitutional scholar as one that merits the invocation of Homeland Security privileges? Is America's maxing out its credit card comparable to a nuclear or terrorist attack on the continent? We may find out in less than 48 hours.

A copy of Directive-20 is at the link:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/obamas-final-loohole-catastrophic-emergency-clause

[originalpckelly]

1. Unilateral power grabs, oh joy.

[treestar]

2. The Republicans would really deserve that

I'm not in favor of it as it is Cheneyesque,, but the schadenfreude would really be great.

[dgibby]

3. Hope he uses it if he has to.

Thanks for posting.

[TwilightGardener]

4. It becomes a national crisis when defense-related debts can't be paid.

As far as I can see, that would be the most immediate concern and where this law might apply.

[ThomWV]

5. Why not just declare martial law and arrest all the Republicans in Congress

[leveymg]

6. No need for Obama to invoke emergency powers. The Fed will cover the Treasury checks.

There is precedent for this. The Fed's QE2 has secretly loaned the banks $16T since 2008. Just add to that staggering pile of loans.

The Fed can do it by its existing emergency powers. This takes care of the shortfall should things drag on past Tues. and Treasury checks need to be covered. There was a long discussion here about this yesterday. See the thread at, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1604107#1604160

[PoliticAverse]

7. It's the age of the "Imperial Presidency" and a Federal Reserve that can lend trillions...

to banks and corporations foreign and domestic. If they want to stop a default they'll find a way.

[shraby]

8. It's not a matter of maxing out the credit card..it's a matter

of paying for the bills that were put on that credit card.
The way I see it, Obama is responsible for seeing to it that the full faith and credit of the United States is not questioned. If congress won't/can't do it, the duty falls to him.

[leveymg]

9. No. The duty falls on the Fed to keep the banking system solvent and functioning in any emergency

The public that has accounts gets covered in the bargain.

[SoutherDem]

10. I really don't want to see either option to happen but...

I am too the point I don't care if he calls on the help of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, if a crisis must be declared or the 14th used better Obama than Bush.

[Cool Logic]

11. "Politico's Ben White has pointed out something interesting,"

Interesting...? I think troubling is a more fitting description.

The American system of checks and balances was designed to prohibit the very thing White is advocating. This so-called "loophole" would create out of thin air, the unilateral power for the Executive to borrow and spend.

The legal process of declaring war has been disregarded and we see what that has given us: Thousands of lives wasted, trillions of $$$ borrowed and squandered.

It is not clear to me why so many people are willing to abandon the American system of checks and balances that has for the most part, worked well over the course of our history. Abandoning the Constitution is what created our $$$ problems--the solution will not be found in it's further abandonment.

[dkf]

12. Gee that is reassuring.