This is a constitutional crisis.

[onenote]

49. Show me the provision of the constitution that is being violated.

I think its ridiculous that they are doing what they're doing and I want it to come back and bite them on the ass during the 2014 elections and for years beyond. But the Constitution says that the House and Senate get to determine the rules of their proceedings. There is nothing in the Constitution that I can see that limits that power and nothing that is violated by either side in a congressional and/or congressional/legislative showdown over legislation. The House could have (and maybe if we capture the House in 2014 we will) changed Rule XXII, Clause 4 so that it always is up to the Speaker or the Majority leader or the members of DU to decide when a particular bill can be brought up for a vote). It wouldn't be unconsitutional. Indeed, the discharge procedure is not mandated anywhere in the Constitution and there would be nothing that would stop a majority in the House from doing away with that procedure. The problem isn't that the constitution prohibits what the repubs are doing; the problem is that the Constitution doesn't prohibit it. The House and Senate have already each passed bills to fund the government and both are likely to have passed debt ceiling increase legislation. But the bills that each body has passed are not the same and that means under the Constitution, they are not law. And nothing in the Constitution allows the judiciary or the executive branch or one house of congress to dictate which of two non-identical pieces of legislation becomes law without the concurrence of both houses.

Believe me, I don't like this one bit. I didn't like in 1995-96 when my girlfriend, who worked for a federal agency, was out of work for several weeks. I don't like it now, when millions of people are being hurt. If the repubs, heaven forbid, were to capture both the House and Senate and started dismantling government programs, I would hope like hell the President would veto every one of their actions. And I hate to imagine what would happen if the repubs were to capture the White House in 2016. Fortunately, the repubs are in the process of cutting their own collective throats.

As for what the President should do if we get to the point of an actual default? I think he should take action under the 14th Amendment and let the chips fall where they may.