The Shutdown is a Case of Republicans Vs. The Constitution

Article written by Kim Crumb.

Our great country faces a crisis.  The government is in partial shutdown, and a debt ceiling limit will occur in just over a week. In times like this, we look to our most basic documents for the fundamentals of how to resolve the matters between us in legal, effective and prompt ways.   The good news?  The Constitution does have provisions and language about public debt to guide us out of this. 

Here's the text of the Constitution from Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, it says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”  Therefore: nobody should call into question, in any way, the legally authorized debts of our great country. The amendment’s meaning is as clear as day. 

How did this constitutional amendment come about?  In the 1860's our great country had been through a brutal Civil War, and the federal government debt soared from a paltry $64 Million in 1860 to $2.68 BILLION in 1866. Yes, it had gone up 40 fold in only six years!   We'd gone from spending $1 Million a week, to $1 Million a day, and at the end of the war we were spending $3 Million a day.  

We had a great national debate then over how we ought to pay off such massive debts.  They remembered how debt defaults had hurt Bourbon France and led to the mass murder and mayhem of the French Revolution and didn’t want the same to happen in America.  The 14th Amendment was the answer. It was meant to prevent anyone, including Congress, from playing politics with our nation's debt and ensuring it would be paid in full. 

When challenged before the Supreme Court, the court ruled that: “While this provision was undoubtedly inspired by the desire to put beyond question the obligations of the government issued during the Civil War,” Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote in 1935, “its language indicates a broader connotation.”

The fact of the matter is that this is not a case of Republicans vs. Democrats.  This is a case of Republicans vs. the Constitution of the United States. Anybody that suggests that we not pay our bills on time is openly advocating for the breaking of the law, as written into our most fundamental document.  It doesn’t matter how much phony "justifying" language you come up with There are no "loopholes".  If you are represented by a Congressman advocating for anything other than paying-our-debts-on-time, please consider that it's your job a citizen to make the effort to contact them and tell them that you expect them to respect the 14th Amendment for what it is: the law of the land.  And that if they don't, that there is an election next year, and you won't forget that they put politics over our Constitution and the good of the people.  Future generations will thank you.