President Biden is playing a dangerous game. When the federal government’s deficit spending is about to exceed the amount Congress has authorized it to borrow and the Treasury has run out of what are known as extraordinary measures to stave off disaster, Congress and the president must negotiate a compromise resolution, or the nation faces the prospect of default.
The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would raise the nation’s debt limit by $1.5 trillion, coupled with proposed spending cuts, and its Republican leaders have signaled a willingness to negotiate. Mr. Biden instead has demanded that Congress raise the debt ceiling without conditions.
But the House Republicans’ insistence on negotiations and compromise is not hostage taking. It is the ordinary stuff of politics. The two sides can posture all they want, but in the end, Congress and the president have to reach an agreement. That is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. The Constitution does not permit a unilateral solution on either side.
Begin with constitutional basics. Article I, Section 8 lists the powers of Congress. The first clause of Section 8 provides that Congress may “lay and collect taxes.” The second clause provides that Congress has the power “to borrow money on the credit of the United States.” These clauses are absolute. The executive branch cannot impose taxes or borrow funds on its own authority. Together with the power over spending, these powers are known as the power of the purse, which belongs entirely to the legislative branch.
These provisions have pride of place among Congress’s powers for a reason. Before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the English Civil War, the Stuart monarchs asserted the power to tax and to borrow without parliamentary approval, which effectively meant the power to rule without Parliament. The result was not just autocratic rule at home but also periodic defaults on the royal debt, astronomical interest rates for government borrowing and ultimately civil war. Our framers did not wish to recreate the Stuart monarchy, and the first two clauses of Section 8 reflect that aversion. The power of the purse may be the most fundamental element in our system of checks and balances.
The debt limit is nothing more than an authorization from Congress to borrow a certain amount, up to a certain limit. The debt ceiling is not a restriction on what would otherwise be the president’s ability to borrow; it is an authorization for the executive branch to borrow up to that ceiling. Above that, the president may not go.
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