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Opinion

Dealing With The Debt Ceiling

A fight has been going on regarding the debt ceiling between the Biden Administration and the GOP. Biden considers himself blameless during this standoff. Meanwhile, AOC and her fellow squad members have warned Biden not to negotiate by claiming he will lose progressive votes in the 2024 Presidential Election if he caves in to their demands. There have even been calls for Biden to invoke Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment should there be no solution.

Here is the text of Section Four:

“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. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

Section Four basically says that the Union’s Civil War debts would be paid, but the Union would not be responsible for any of the Confederacy’s debts. Nor would any slave owners be compensated for their former slaves.

Needless to say, Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to the debt issue during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and not today, since there is no insurrection or rebellion (note: the January 6 Capitol Riot was not an insurrection, contrary to what some liberals might say).

So instead of resorting to Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment, perhaps my idea can be implemented: Cut Spending and Start Selling.

For instance, the following government entities can be sold to the private sector: Amtrak, FDIC, NASA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Postal Service, the Social Security Administration, and the TVA.

All offices of Czars can abolished, as well as the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Federal Election Commission, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the Federal Reserve System.

The Department of Education and the Department of Energy should be abolished, while the Department of Homeland Security can be placed under the Department of Justice, with three exceptions: the Coast Guard (which can transferred to the Department of Defense), FEMA (which can be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services) and the TSA (which can be eliminated).

If only the Biden Administration and Congress would take this idea into consideration.

Andrew Linn

Andrew Linn is a member of the Owensboro Tea Party and a former Field Representative for the Media Research Center. An ex-Democrat, he became a Republican one week after the 2008 Presidential Election. He has an M.A. in history from the University of Louisville, where he became a member of the Phi Alpha Theta historical honors society. He has also contributed to examiner.com and Right Impulse Media.