Ed Markey did not let the Right Wing narrative prevail. He made it clear that Biden must use the 14th Amendment to eliminate the debt ceiling farce. It should be easy for constitutionalists to understand.
Ed Markey is correct!
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) appeared on MSNBC with Katy Tur to discuss the debt ceiling debacle. Tur pointed out that Markey is one of several senators urging the president to exercise his 14th Amendment authority to raise the debt ceiling. The reality is that the debt ceiling debate should be moot as the 14th Amendment Section 4 is clear.
14th Amendment: Section 4. 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. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.
It could not be clearer. One has to twist themselves into a pretzel to read it any other way.
Tur first asked the senator if he would support Republican work requirements for those who get SNAP. His answer was unequivocal.
“I would vote no,” Markey said. “How outrageous would it be that the trillions of dollars of tax breaks that Donald Trump and these very Republicans extracted for billionaires in America and millionaires in America are untouched, and the only thing we deal with is poor people and work requirements for them in order to receive relatively small benefits from the federal government. That is absolutely unconscionable. So it just shows you how much of the right-wing Republican caucus of the Republican Party is now controlling this discussion. And from my perspective, it’s just cruel; it’s heartless. By the way, 50% of all children in the United States, 50% will be on food stamps will be on SNAP at some point in their life. Just imagine that’s what they’re putting on the table as a demand in terms of concessions from the Democratic Party — unacceptable to me.”
Poor people are always asked to prove their need for peanuts, yet defense contractors and other government contractors rip us off orders of magnitude greater and are seldom asked to justify anything.
After Katy Tur told Markey that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said using the 14th Amendment to solve the debt crisis impasse would cause a constitutional crisis, his answer nailed it.
“The Supreme Court says that they are textualists, that the six-seat majority, which now controls the Supreme Court,” Ed Markey said. “If they are textualists, if they read the plain words of the 14th Amendment, that the validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law should be paid. It’s very clear there’s no way around it. And if they do that, it will not be a constitutional crisis. It will be the Constitution upheld. And ultimately, going back to regular order with the budget and appropriations process for the next Congress is the way in which we deal with all of these questions, which the Republicans are trying to jam inappropriately into this negotiation.”
Biden should give Republicans an ultimatum. If they do not accept, invoke the 14th Amendment.
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