Il y a déjà plusieurs semaines que les discussion entourant le plafond de la dette (ou le hausse ou pas) constituent une épine au pied de l'administration Obama. Les négociations avec les républicains sont dans une impasse et le 2 août, considéré comme une date butoir pour le paiement de la dette, approche rapidement. Il y a plusieurs jours je présentais ici une solution musclée envisagée par des conseillers et/ou des sénateurs démocrates: invoquer le 14e amendement pour contourner les républicains et hausser le plafond. Voici ce que dit cet amendement: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law...shall not be questioned.".
Si cette possibilité est constitutionnelle, il y aurait un prix politique important à payer pour contourner les élus du Congrès. Petit topo sur le site de Talking points memo.
"But even if it's correct, and even though Republicans are holding the debt ceiling hostage to unpopular conservative legislative priorities, it's not a step the administration wants to take, or would be able to take lightly.
Conversations with experts indicate that the president would likely need one of the most powerful offices in the government to agree with this view before they could blow past the debt limit. And even if Obama got the go-ahead, the White House would have to be prepared for epic political and legal battles with the GOP, which would no doubt follow if Obama took such drastic action.
Because the constitutionality of the debt ceiling is such a weighty question, experts say the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel -- the office tasked with keeping the Executive Branch in compliance with the law -- would likely have to issue a formal opinion on the question, and the administration would have to be prepared to defend its decision in court, in Congress and before the public.
"The president would not rely solely on the views of [the Office of Management and Budget] and Treasury even if they agree on the question, because of the novelty, and because of the Constitutionality of the question," said Steve Bradbury, who headed OLC during President George W. Bush's second term.
The current impasse bears a striking resemblance to a similar debt limit showdown between then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton in 1995. In that fight, as in the current one, the country teetered precariously on the edge of default, and the administration approached OLC for its informal advice on what methods the Secretary of the Treasury could use to delay hitting the debt ceiling.
Documents posted by the Clinton Library (PDF) lay out the process the Clinton White House followed as it tried to pull the country back from the brink."
Le reste de l'article mérite aussi un détour:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/constitutional-crisis-the-political-and-legal-risk-of-ignoring-the-debt-limit.php?ref=fpa
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