Treasury official suggests Biden won’t use 14th Amendment to avoid debt default

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Sunday threw cold water on the idea of President Joe Biden invoking the 14th Amendment to avert a debt default.

Adeyemo was asked during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union about the president’s comments Tuesday that he was considering using the 14th Amendment, which generally deals with citizenship but includes a clause that says the public debt “shall not be questioned.” A small but growing number of Democrats have called on the president to use the amendment to sidestep what have become necessary negotiations with House Republicans on spending cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling increase, something Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has described as legally dubious.

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“What the president said was that he did not think the 14th Amendment would solve our problems now,” Adeyemo told the network. “The only thing that can solve our problems now is for Congress to lift the debt limit, which they’ve done, by the way, 78 times — and last, in the last administration, they did it three times without negotiation, and that’s what the president wants them to do now.”

Pressed further on the matter, Adeyemo reiterated his previous comment that “the president has made clear that he doesn’t think that would solve our problems now.”

The debt ceiling, or the top amount the federal government can borrow, will either need to be raised or abolished sometime next month to avert a debt default. Economists have long warned that such a default would wreak havoc on the economy.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was able to hold enough of the House Republican Conference together to pass his debt ceiling budget proposal, which is meant to serve as an opening salvo in negotiations with the White House, late last month. Biden, backed up by Senate Democrats, stood firm in his refusal to negotiate over the debt limit for months.

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The White House has decried the bill as an attempt at political “hostage-taking” and vowed that Biden would veto it if it reached his desk, though the likelihood of such legislation passing the Senate, where Democrats control the chamber 51-49, is slim.

Negotiations have picked up in recent weeks as the deadline approached, though no deal has been reached. Asked about the Biden team’s most recent conversations with Congressional Republicans, Adeyemo said they had been “constructive between all of the parties. I know the president looks forward to getting together with the leaders to talk about how we continue to make progress.”