The nation as a whole will be better served if President Joe Biden solves the problem himself.
As we come closer to the X-date when the U.S. Treasury can no longer rely on accounting gimmicks to forestall the need to issue new debt in order to satisfy our country’s financial obligations, the stalemate between President Joe Biden and House Republicans to raise the debt limit shows little sign of progress. While some are attempting to paint any talk of Biden bypassing the debt ceiling as “dangerous nonsense,” the reality is that he has numerous legal advantages should he pursue such a path. Biden’s legal hand is so strong that he ought to break off negations with House Republicans and break the impasse through unilateral executive action.
The primary legal argument being eyed for Biden to issue new debt is the 14th Amendment, which contains a clause stating that, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.” Rather than work through the merits of this argument as so many are frantically doing at the moment, shockingly little attention has been paid to what is known as the “political question” doctrine, one which may well prove pivotal should Biden decide to act unilaterally in this way.
The political question doctrine is a means by which courts eschew consideration of a case on the grounds that the resolution of the matter is best left to the political branches to sort out for themselves.
