The Hill News

President Obama’s suggesting the 14th Amendment to justify the vast incurrence of foreign and domestic debt brings this administration to the peak of folly.

The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments to override the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling of 1857 and to provide full enfranchisement of freed slaves and ensure for them full citizenship. Tagged onto the end in Section 4 is the assertion that “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.” Obviously this is in reference to war debt incurred by the Union in the Civil War, and not for bailouts of banks 150 years into the future. And obviously it “shall not be questioned” by the conquered states. Is this Secretary Geithner’s suggestion?

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