The Late Congressional Follies

Editor, Daytona Beach News-Journal::

It's okay to keep the Federal government shut down for a while.  We federal civil servants don't mind a few days on the beach.  We are used to being deemed non-essential parasites until we are not there to keep the country open for business.  You will miss us eventually.  Not in Washington, perhaps, where I used to work before that first lengthy shutdown in the Clinton era, but in the local field offices of Social Security, the USDA extension service, the FBI, the Weather Service and yes even the IRS among others. Folks will be banging on their doors soon enough.

But it is definitely not okay to play fast and loose with the full faith and credit of the United States of America.  The repercussions will be profound, long lasting and felt world wide.  The world will judge us irresponsible and unreliable, and will look elsewhere for leadership to our --  and the world's -- detriment.

Perhaps that is why the plain language of the U. S. Constitution prohibits Congress from doing so.  How can the debt ceiling law be constitutional when the Fourteenth Amendment reads as follows:

Section 4. The validity of the public dept 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.?

Yes, this was a Civil War amendment, but its language is more general than that, and certainly written that way for a purpose, as the Congresional historical record attests.  Perhaps this obscure language -- as the NY Times has called it -- has been lurking there for just such a dismal occasion as this to save us for our own folly.  It's worth a test and would certainly be an interesting case for the Suprene Court.

Another point worth considering: no other major country has a law restricting its democratic government from paying debts already owed.  Why do we put up with this plaything of the political parties?  It should be repealed before it does real harm to world finances.  Don't the Tea Party's zealots like Texas Senator Ted Cruz understand that US Treasury Bonds are collateral for bank and other loans around the world?  Call their value into question and interest rates will jump for all kinds of loans, including a lot of U.S. variable rate mortgages. Are more underwater mortgage defaults better for America than paying our bills?

Even worse, an actual default will cause world lenders to go into a cautious crouch, freezing credit markets and tripping the globe into yet another financial panic and then into economic recession.  Enough already!

Bruce G Johnson
Orange City, FL