U.S. Cannot Constitutionally Default on Its Debt, Says Constitutional Scholar

[mandym]

The United States cannot constitutionally default on its existing public debt even if the debt ceiling is not raised, constitutional scholar and attorney David Rivkin said during a Federalist Society news event. Instead, he said, the country should focus on the fiscal responsibility of new borrowing.

“The United States, to put it more clearly, is one of the few countries in the world that is technically incapable of defaulting on its public debts, so we cannot have a situation like in Greece or Portugal or Ireland, ” Rivkin, co-chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism, said during a telephone conference call sponsored by the conservative legal group on July 7.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/federalist-scholar-us-incapable-defaulti

 

[hillclimber1]

I wonder technically what happens when the dollar is dying? Could the treasury simply adopt a million dollar bill, and maybe a billion dollar bill, and print our way out of debt?

Or perhaps the fed assumes all outstanding mortgage debt, and confiscates all mortgaged and non patented properties.. That would give them tons of assets to pay debt.. I don't know what I'm talking about though, just wondering..

 

[freeatlast]

The United States cannot constitutionally default on its existing public debt even if the debt ceiling is not raised, constitutional scholar and attorney David Rivkin said during a Federalist Society news event. Instead, he said, the country should focus on the fiscal responsibility of new borrowing.

“The United States, to put it more clearly, is one of the few countries in the world that is technically incapable of defaulting on its public debts, so we cannot have a situation like in Greece or Portugal or Ireland, ” Rivkin, co-chairman of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism, said during a telephone conference call sponsored by the conservative legal group on July 7.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/federalist-scholar-us-incapable-defaulti

I think the guy has been eating some bad dog food. The 14th amendment does not deal with what he is suggesting. Here is the 14th amendment
http://www.shmoop.com/constitution/14th-amendment.html

As to the supreme court they have a tendency to write law and I am not so sure, not seeing the actual case he refers to, that they have actually said what he says.
I do however think that the administration might very well hold to this man's thinking and try an end run on the responsibility of congress (and they would love it even if they complained) if no deal is struck and the president himself decides how to handle this problem, but I think it would be unconstitutional if he does as the congress is suppose to set such things. At some point there will be a default and we will fall as the nation we are.

 

[freeatlast]

I wonder technically what happens when the dollar is dying? Could the treasury simply adopt a million dollar bill, and maybe a billion dollar bill, and print our way out of debt?

Or perhaps the fed assumes all outstanding mortgage debt, and confiscates all mortgaged and non patented properties.. That would give them tons of assets to pay debt.. I don't know what I'm talking about though, just wondering..

I am not sure what you mean by printing large bill as to how that is any solution. However there is no fix for this. The only thing that can happen is default and one possibility is for China to claim the land of the US because they hold bonds which could be construed as emanate domain. One thing that is most likely is the devaluation of the dollar and we lose everything and other countries forgive our debt as we owe other nations, but hold onto power some over us. There are many possibilities but none of them include a fix because of the amount of current debt.