Vol. 77/No. 39      November 4, 2013

The suspension of “nonessential” government services — those of lesser importance to the capitalist class — took place Oct. 1 after the Republican Party majority in the House of Representatives refused to pass the government appropriations bill in an attempt to halt or at least postpone implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare.”

One aspect of the bill before Congress was a proposal to increase the congressional imposed limit on borrowing to avoid an Oct. 17 deadline for defaulting on payments to holders of U.S. government bonds. Called the “debt ceiling,” the limit has been raised by Congress 53 times since 1978.

As the debt ceiling deadline approached, major dailies printed dire warnings about the impending disaster to U.S. and world finance that would result from the first U.S. government debt default in history. In reality, such a thing was far from a real possibility, however. The holders of U.S. bonds always get paid first, on time, and in full. And the U.S. ruling families — who hold much of this debt themselves — were not going to needlessly cast doubt on the “full faith and credit” of the almighty dollar.

On Oct. 16, hours before the default deadline, Congress passed the Default Prevention Act giving the president the power to suspend the limit through Feb. 7, 2014. The debt ceiling will then be automatically raised by the amount necessary to maintain debt payments. Congress can technically decide against the automatic raise, but the president was given the power to overrule any such decision. At that point, only a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate could override the president’s decision.

The U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 8, gives Congress the power to collect taxes and pay debts. “Until 1917, the president had to ask Congress’ permission for each borrowing and frequently acquiesced to conditions,” wrote the Investor’s Business Daily. “Ever since then, presidents have come to Congress once or twice a year for a debt-ceiling hike. Until this year, Congress had never abdicated control over the nation’s indebtedness.”

The tendency of the president to more and more act as if Congress does not exist gained some traction under the former presidencies of George W. Bush and William Clinton. This inclination has accelerated under the presidency of Barack Obama.

The separation of powers and limits on presidential authority drafted into the U.S. Constitution slow down and sometimes “gridlock” the ability of the U.S. rulers to make and carry out decisions. This is good for the working class. It affords us more political space to organize and fight. On the other hand, the current tendency toward strengthening executive powers over those of Congress and the courts helps sets the stage for reactionary forces to brush aside bourgeois-democratic forms in the future when the class struggle reaches a pitch that they become obstacles to maintaining capitalist rule.

The loudest cry for the president to “take charge” and break through the inconvenience of legislative decision-making came from the current president’s liberal base — among the most anti-democratic and Constitution-indifferent wing in U.S. bourgeois politics today.

Writing in the New York Times, for example, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution wrote, “The only defensible option for the president if the debt ceiling is not raised is to disregard the debt ceiling.”

Meanwhile, as part of the deal ending the impasse, a new budget committee was formed, where Democratic and Republican legislators are discussing deeper cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other social programs.  
 
 
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