From Speaker McCarthy's Vacant Stare to Republicans' Simian Howls Over a Non-Existent 'Debt Ceiling,' We've Become Unrecognizable to any 'Us, the People.'
You state that "the ‘debt ceiling’ regime ... wasn’t fought over by White Houses and Congress during the decades following 1917 … until opportunistic politicians beginning with Newt Gingrich in 1995 rediscovered it in the U.S. Code and decided to try their hands at employing it for stunt-performing purposes like shutting down the government."
How then would you characterize what has been called "The First Debt Ceiling Crisis" (https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr783.pdf) which took place during the 83rd Congress, 1953-54, when the White House and both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans? Was that not a "fight over the debt ceiling"?
I am so loving these bits of Hamilton’s history, the translations of the terms used in his day as compared to our understanding of these terms today, and the pared down explanations of the workings of the US Code. Honestly, the US Code is not something I have ever thought about (except in a, “There’s gotta be a law for this, right?” kind of way). Seems like it’s time to codify some pretty important non-positive law titles.
Phenomenal, thank you Robert. While I still think the trillion $ coin is the stronger LEGAL maneuver (i.e. the least legally ambiguous), the ideas you’ve presented here are perhaps the most POLITICALLY palatable solutions, in that they don’t violate norms and procedures.
You state that "the ‘debt ceiling’ regime ... wasn’t fought over by White Houses and Congress during the decades following 1917 … until opportunistic politicians beginning with Newt Gingrich in 1995 rediscovered it in the U.S. Code and decided to try their hands at employing it for stunt-performing purposes like shutting down the government."
How then would you characterize what has been called "The First Debt Ceiling Crisis" (https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr783.pdf) which took place during the 83rd Congress, 1953-54, when the White House and both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans? Was that not a "fight over the debt ceiling"?
I am so loving these bits of Hamilton’s history, the translations of the terms used in his day as compared to our understanding of these terms today, and the pared down explanations of the workings of the US Code. Honestly, the US Code is not something I have ever thought about (except in a, “There’s gotta be a law for this, right?” kind of way). Seems like it’s time to codify some pretty important non-positive law titles.
Phenomenal, thank you Robert. While I still think the trillion $ coin is the stronger LEGAL maneuver (i.e. the least legally ambiguous), the ideas you’ve presented here are perhaps the most POLITICALLY palatable solutions, in that they don’t violate norms and procedures.