Default: A Distinct Possibility

The country has officially reached the ‘’debt ceiling’’, according to the Treasury Secretary. So now she is resorting to ‘’extraordinary measures’’ to ‘’stay under the debt limit’’. Even so, she anticipates the country will ‘’default on the national debt by early June’’, unless the ‘’debt ceiling is raised’’. 

The federal government is now ‘’on the horns of a dilemma’’, as two branches of that government, the executive and the legislative, are ‘’at each others throats’’.

The executive branch, led by President Biden, a Democrat, is determined to raise the debt ceiling, without cutting social spending. The legislative branch, which is to say the Senate and the House of Representatives, has other ideas. The fact of the matter is that the House controls the money! It is further a fact that the House is now controlled by Republicans!

The journalists are now reporting that a sizeable minority of Republican Members of Congress, possibly ‘’forty or so’’, are ‘’in control’’. They have formed something they refer to as a ‘’Freedom Caucus’’, within the Republican Party, the GOP. The journalists refer to this Caucus as ‘’Ultra Conservative’’, or ‘’Extreme Right Wing’’. 

It is further the opinion of the journalists, that the House Speaker is now a mere ‘’figure head’’, a ‘’puppet’’, that he ‘’dances to their tune’’, that of the Freedom Caucus. They have a point!

The Republicans have a ‘’razor thin’’ majority in the House, that of a mere four or five votes. This gives the members of the Freedom Caucus considerable power, which they are only too anxious to use! In fact, the only way McCarthy could secure enough votes to be elected as Speaker, was to make numerous concessions to the Freedom Caucus. He has been accused of ‘’giving away the House’’. 

One of those concessions is that of allowing any Member, at any time, to demand a vote for a new Speaker. Such a demand will automatically shut down the House, until after a successful vote, in which a Speaker is elected. During the time of the vote, the government is effectively paralyzed. The last time that happened, it required fifteen votes, over a period of several days. That is not something they want to repeat!

The Members of the Freedom Caucus are determined to not raise the debt ceiling, or at the very least, agree to raise the debt ceiling, but only if it is tied to significant cuts in social spending.

Yet Biden is determined to raise the debt ceiling, without cutting social spending, if only because he is focused on serving a second term. So now he is considering ‘’new and creative’’ ways to do so, perhaps ‘’bypassing’’ the Congress. This may also involve Violating the Constitution! 

The closest advisers of Biden are suggesting that he should merely raise the debt ceiling, without the approval of Congress. They maintain that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution gives him the right to declare the debt ceiling to be Unconstitutional!

They have in mind the clause which states ‘’no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the Unites States’’. 

Such details, as declaring a law to be Unconstitutional, are generally considered to be under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. So say the experts on Constitutional law!

Yet the advisors to President Biden are of a different opinion! They are encouraging him to ‘’take unilateral action’’, to raise the debt ceiling, without the approval of Congress! They assure him that as President, he has the authority to make that ‘’executive decision’’. They also assure him that should the Supreme Court object, and rule that such an action is Unconstitutional, then he, as President, could respond by declaring the Supreme Court decision to be ‘’inconsistent with the Constitutional duties of the President’’, and ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court! 

Incredible! Even more incredible, it is not without precedent!

This has happened before, during the Civil War. At that time, President Lincoln suspended the rights of citizens to a ‘’writ of habeas corpus’’. This is to say that the right of ‘’unlawful and indefinite imprisonment’’ was suspended, by President Lincoln. He ordered the arrest and imprisonment of countless people, for any reason, or for no reason, and for as long as he saw fit! He maintained that he had the right to do so, under the authority of the ‘’War Act’’. Further, he did this without Congressional approval!

These actions were brought to the attention of the Supreme Court. It ruled that President Lincoln did not have the right to arrest people and hold them indefinitely! 

President Lincoln in turn defied this ruling, of the Supreme Court! As he phrased it, ‘’Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the government itself to go to pieces, lest that one be violated?’’

This in no way alters the fact that President Lincoln took an oath to ‘’preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’’, and then broke that very oath! 

The advisers to President Biden are telling him to also break his oath! To violate the Constitution! This could well be considered to be nothing less than an Act of High Treason!

As for those who think that this could not possibly happen, as the United States is a democratic republic, may I suggest that you face the facts. The fact is that the monopoly capitalists, the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, are members of a class of people who are technically referred to as imperialists. Further, as Lenin stated, quite clearly, ‘’imperialism is reaction, right down the line’’!

It is entirely possible that President Biden will stoop to the depth of violating the Constitution. It is even possible that he will use the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, as justification for that violation! That and the fact that President Lincoln has already set the precedent!

The American people are not about to take that lying down! We can expect widespread opposition!

In such a case, we will no doubt be faced with a very strange alliance! We can expect the ‘’Ultra Right’’, including the ‘’Freedom Caucus’’, as well as the ’’MAGA People’’, to come together with the ‘’Leftist People’’, including those who are thought to be ‘’Ultra Left’’, the ‘’Communists’’, in opposition to President Biden! Impeach Biden! Remove him from office! This despite the fact that Kamala Harris would automatically become President! Truly, ‘’politics makes for strange bedfellows’’!

I should mention that another option, which Biden and his councillors are seriously considering, is to ‘’Mint a Trillion Dollar Coin’’! For that matter, they could mint a score of them, and declare the country to be debt free! They could even have a surplus! (Joking!)

Those are the options, which both Speaker of the House McCarthy, and President Biden, are considering. If McCarthy ‘’gives in’’ to Biden, then he will be ‘’voted out’’ as Speaker. On the other hand, if Biden ‘’gives in’’ to McCarthy, he will be ‘’voted out’’, at the next election. This is commonly referred to as ‘’being caught between a rock and a hard place’’! A government default appears to be ever more likely! 

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels let us know what to expect. This ‘’gong show’’, within Washington, is nothing other than part of the ‘’process of dissolution’’, within the old society, during the time in which the ‘’class struggle nears the decisive hour’’.

As a result of this, we can now expect a ‘’small section of the ruling class to cut itself adrift, and join the Revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands’’.

In our case, that Revolutionary class is the Proletariat, as it is the Proletariat that ‘’hold the future in its hands’’.

It also means that Revolution can break out at any time, as it is clear that we are approaching the ‘’decisive hour’’. We had best be prepared!

This is to stress the importance of preparing the working class for Revolution, and the subsequent Dictatorship of the Proletariat.  After the Revolution, many workers will be placed in positions of authority! Any training they receive now, will prove to be most valuable! That is much preferable to no training!

At the very minimum, it is up to conscious people, Communists, to make workers aware of themselves as the members of a working class, of Proletarians. It is the duty of workers to overthrow the capitalists, the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, and crush them, under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. As I have covered this in previous articles, there is no need to repeat it here. Allow me to merely stress the importance of performing this quickly. That which the capitalists refer to as ‘’X Day’’, the day on which the government ‘’defaults on the national debt’’ is fast approaching. That could well trigger a Revolution.