Biden Needs a Contingency Plan if Freedom Caucus Members Delay Vote on Debt Ceiling

Freedom Caucus Members have Vowed to Use Procedural Objections to Delay A Vote

As Biden and McCarthy work to drum up support for their debt ceiling compromise, Biden needs to have a Contingency Plan in place if the Freedom Caucus members are successful in their vow to use procedural objections to delay any vote in the House on the debt ceiling compromise. The more intense Freedom Caucus members have vowed to explore and raise every procedural objection they can to delay House consideration of the Debt Ceiling Compromise. They have stated their opposition to the Compromise, but is stating an objection going to be sufficient for them?

Some Freedom Caucus members, and their patron saint, Donald Trump, have voiced strong objections to the Compromise deal, and they said they are exploring ways to gum up the process. No one knows at this point if McCarthy and Biden will have enough votes in the House to obtain approval of their compromise, but the Freedom Caucus extremists claim to be getting their procedural ammunition ready if it appears the Debt Compromise may pass. Trump and some Freedom Caucus members have actually said it would be good to promote a U. S. default on its debt obligations as part of their nihilistic policy of destruction.

Will Freedom Caucus members actually raise procedural objections to slow down consideration and possible approval of the Compromise Debt Ceiling deal? No one knows. Will any procedural objections be successful in delaying House consideration? Again, no one knows. But it is possible that some Freedom Caucus members may have actually studied ways to slow down the process even if they cannot ultimately prevent a vote.

The problem may be acute since, unlike most other issues before Congress, the Debt ceiling is one that has a target date: June 5. Treasury Secretary Yellen has stated emphatically now that Treasury will have exhausted its special accounting procedures so that the U.S. will not be able to pay its bills after June 5. So we have a fixed target date, and if Freedom Caucus members are successful in delaying House consideration of the Debt compromise until or after June 5, they will be successful in causing the U.S. to default on its debts.

Not knowing if Freedom Caucus members will actually pursue a dilatory strategy, but the possibility that they might do so and be successful in some of their procedural or other objections requires that Biden have Contingency Plans in place to prevent a default if Freedom Caucus members are successful in causing a significant delay.

To my mind, the most expeditious and achievable Contingency Plan is for Biden to adopt an Executive Order under the !4th Amendment and the Constitutional obligation and duty for the President to see that all laws are faithfully executed to direct Treasury to continue borrowing additional sums necessary to fund all the Congressionally approved and adopted programs and activities. Biden needs to work out the language and implementation of any such Executive Order so that he can adopt it and put it in place quickly if it appears that the Freedom Caucus is or may be successful in delaying a House vote past June 5.

A fixed X-date of June 5 gives the Freedom Caucus and its opponents a certainty point when countervailing Presidential action may be necessary to prevent a default. Biden cannot scramble around drafting an Executive Order and implementing plans at the last minute. An Executive Order under the Constitution requires advance careful planning to make sure it is immediately effective if needed to prevent a default.

There might be other Contingency Plans that could be developed, but others mentioned like the Platinum coin or using alternative funding instruments that are not considered debt seem more unlikely to be workable and effective at the last minute. These alternatives have greater uncertainty as to their-effectiveness than does the Constitutional Executive Order to keep borrowing as necessary to prevent a default.

Such an Executive Order might turn out to be only needed temporarily to get us past X-date without a default if it appears that Biden and McCarthy have secured the votes to adopt the Debt Ceiling compromise but need a little more legislative time to achieve final adoption.

It is not known if any Freedom Caucus members are skilled in the art of legislative delay, but if there is a chance they might pursue that strategy and have some success, ,having a well thought out Contingency Plan may be necessary to ,prevent the U.S. from slipping over the line to default on our obligations and the catastrophic economic consequences that would follow.

If the Contingency Plan is only needed temporarily, there is not much time or chance for negative judicial intervention. And if the Executive Order is needed to be made permanent, there is very little chance that anyone could claim the specific and direct injury needed for standing to sue if the plaintiffs’ objection is that the U.S. took steps to pay its bills. It is hard to see any facts or argument that would confer standing on an objection to paying our national debt and the outstanding bills needing payment.

A well executed Contingency Plan would also be politically popular snd demonstrate solid leadership by Biden.