Coercing Congress Into Raising The Debt Limit

People see funny things in the Constitution, as the fight over the supposed constitutional right not to wear a mask makes clear. My eyes aren’t sufficiently good to see masks mentioned in the Constitution, but I do see these words in the Fourteenth Amendment:

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.

The Constitution thus requires that the United States government pay its debts.

And the United States defaulting on its debt would be a catastrophe, both to those who rely on the government for money and to the world’s financial system.

Somehow, despite this, members of the Senate are fighting over repaying the debt, and there’s a chance, once again, that the United States will default, this time in December.

Here’s my personal pledge to you, and I encourage you to join me:

If the United States ever defaults on its debt, then I will vote against the incumbent senators from my state who were in office at the time of the default.

See? Threatening Democrats might not work. Threatening Republicans might not work. But threatening incumbents? That’s the right target.

I have only my little megaphone at Above the Law to present my proposal, but I urge folks with bigger megaphones to spread the word. Let’s have a majority of voters in every state promise publicly to vote against their respective incumbents if the United States ever defaults on its debt. That will cause the children in the Senate to behave correctly.

Naturally, we should carry through on our threat. If the U.S. defaults, throw the bums out. They couldn’t perform the minimum obligation of elected representatives; we can do better with any alternative. So that’s who we’re voting for.

I realize that it would be impossible to convince many Democrats to vote for Republicans or Republicans to vote for Democrats, so I’m not asking for that.  Your obligation after default is to vote against the incumbent; I’m not specifying who you should vote for. You’re free to vote for the candidate from the opposing major party; you’re free to vote for any third-party candidate; you’re free to write in the name of Bozo the Clown for all I care. But I care deeply that you share my concern: If the Senate can’t perform its Constitutional duty and prevent a national catastrophe, then whoever is in office deserves to lose. You will vote against your incumbent senators at the time of the default. Period.

I realize that all of the senators will say the default is not their fault. Sen. Chuck Schumer will say that Sen. Mitch McConnell was unreasonable, so it’s not Chuck’s fault. McConnell will say that Schumer was unreasonable, so it’s not Mitch’s fault. If you don’t live in New York or Kentucky, your senators will say that they’re not in leadership, so default couldn’t possibly be their fault.

I don’t want to hear it.

I can tell you this: Default is certainly not my fault or your fault because we’re not in the Senate. The senators get a vote; we don’t. I have to blame someone; those of you in the neighborhood at the time of the massive screw up seem like a good choice. If I blame all of you collectively, and I can bring another 200 million Americans to join my pledge, then the children in the Senate will be induced to act responsibly. If they threaten not to act responsibly without our assistance, then we should assist them. They do, after all, work for us.

The more I watch the children in Congress at play, the more I have two thoughts:  First, why do any of these folks think we need them? There are surely hundreds of thousands of people in this country who could serve in office as well as the incumbents; it’s no loss if we throw the incumbents out.

Second — and sadly — I fear that if you desire to run for high office, then you are unfit to serve in high office. (Running for “low office” might be a different story. I can imagine someone running for the local school board, for example, who wants nothing more than to improve the local schools. But by the time you’re running for the United States Senate, you’re almost by definition insane.) The desire to run for high office means that you think you’re better able to do the job than any of the alternatives to you; that idea is obviously deranged. And you almost surely don’t desire to run because you’d be skilled at writing laws. No one has run for office with the campaign slogan: “Vote for me! I’m reasonable, great at negotiating compromises, and draft unambiguous bills!” No, no, no. People desire to run for office for the money (whether while in office or after leaving), the power (which must be a strong magnet), and the public adulation. Almost no one is running for high office for the right reasons. And, if there are one or two people in the Senate who ran for the right reason, too bad: We’re sacrificing you, along with the rest of the bunch, if you default on the debt.

So join with me, and become a single-issue voter: If the United States defaults on its debt, I’m voting against the senators in office at the time of the default.  Defaulting on the debt would be absolute proof that it’s time for a change.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].