It’s time to pay Washington’s bills the right way

The president, speaking at a White House news conference Monday, declined to take the bait when asked if he would employ exotic means to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling if Congress doesn’t.

“There are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs,” Obama said.

Ah, but there are plenty of magic suggestions out there, from ordering the Treasury Department to mint a new $1 trillion coin to employing the language of the 14th Amendment to raise the ceiling without the OK of Congress.

On Friday, Reid and three other Senate leaders wrote to Obama to encourage him to specifically leave those options on the table, lest Republicans win spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

“As you know, Republican leaders are threatening to bring on an economic catastrophe unless Democrats make deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The threat is outrageous and absurd,” the Reid letter reads. “We believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis – without congressional approval, if necessary.”

The move would be unprecedented, controversial and very possibly unconstitutional. It relies on the language in the 14th Amendment that says “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.” The amendment was inserted after the Civil War, to prevent representatives from defeated Southern states from failing to pay Northern war debt.

Reid, speaking in an exclusive interview on the VegasPBS show “Nevada Week in Review” on Friday, said his letter was meant to tell the president to keep his options open. “I’m not advocating for the 14th Amendment,” Reid said. “What I’m saying is the president and all his legal minds should take a real hard look at any opportunity that’s available, that’s constitutional.”

The president, for his part, is looking at the most common option, which is surely constitutional: Congress raises the debt ceiling, and he signs the bill. Repeatedly at Monday’s news conference, he reminded reporters and the nation that raising the ceiling doesn’t authorize one penny in new spending; it simply gives him the power to pay the bills for spending already authorized (by Republicans and Democrats). Failing to do so is irresponsible, he said.

“The issue here is whether America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation,” he said.

But he also said he wouldn’t compromise with Republicans who are demanding spending cuts in exchange for paying past bills, or who are saying they will raise the debt ceiling by the exact amount of spending cuts only. “What I will not do is have that discussion with a gun at the head of the American people,” he said.

Using the debt ceiling to leverage compromise isn’t a new thing, and it’s not exclusively a Republican thing, either. According to Bob Woodward’s recent book, “The Price of Politics,” then-Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told Obama that a group of about 12 senators would not vote to increase the debt ceiling unless Obama created the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission.

But it is an irresponsible thing, no matter who is doing it or why. (I include in this criticism Obama himself, who once voted against raising the debt ceiling when he was a senator.) Failing to act could have negative effects on U.S. credit and interest rates – and it would eventually lead to a government shutdown. And while a small group of nihilists in the Republican Party – there is no other word for them – may desire to shutter the government, the president seems to be betting they are outnumbered by responsible patriots. Let’s hope he’s right, before magic tricks and loopholes are all we have left.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.