I'll Break Your Law If You'll Break Mine.

       Henry Aaron had a very interesting article in the New York Times yesterday. President Obama, or for that matter, any President faced with a debt ceiling crisis will break a law, no matter what he does or doesn't do. The article is titled 'Our Outlaw President'.
       Now class, here's the problem President Obama faces. The Constitution requires that he spend what Congress requires him to spend, raise only those taxes Congress has authorized him to impose and borrow no more than Congress authorizes. That's all pretty clear. It's the law of the land.
       So for those who really, really dislike President Obama, they will soon have him in a position of defying the Constitution no matter what he does. If he cuts spending without both houses of Congress agreeing, he breaks the law. If he raises taxes not approved by both houses, he breaks the law and if he ignores the debt ceiling imposed by the last Congress and borrows enough to meet our country's responsibilities he again would break the law.
       Now any one of those choices might be okay with you or might be cause to impeach him, in your opinion, but such a condition couldn't possibly stand the review of the Supreme Court, could it? One way or another, if we reach that point, he's going to have to decide to break one of those laws. And any way you slice it, some folks are gonna scream foul.
       So here's the problem. Fewer than one third of one of the two houses of Congress, in fact only one person in that house, which is only one half of one third of the federal government can place the presidency of the United States in the position of having no choice but to break the law. That could not possibly have been the intent of the authors of the Constitution.
       It seems to me that the President should petition the Supreme Court to make a decision as to which of the three laws should be repealed or invalidated, either temporarily or, preferably, permanently. Personally, I think that if the President must disobey one law, it should be to ignore the debt ceiling. That's because the Congress decided that question when they passed the spending bills. But why is it that one member of the House of Representatives, the speaker, can hold the entire country hostage should he or she decide to do so? The same question can be asked of the filibuster and/or the majority leader in the Senate.