Bruce Barlett, The Debt Limit Is the Real Fiscal Cliff

Bruce Barlett points out that hitting the debt limit – more specifically, the GOP forcing us to default on debt payments – is likely to be a much more serious issue than the Fiscal Clif:

Much of what passes for fiscal-cliff concern is actually anxiety about whether Republicans in Congress will force a default on the nation’s debt in pursuit of their radical agenda.

If the GOP forces a default then that could precipitate a Constitutional crisis:

In the October issue of the Columbia Law Review, Professors Neil H. Buchanan of the George Washington University Law School and Michael C. Dorf of Cornell Law School examine the question of what a president should do when he must act and all his options are unconstitutional. They cite Abraham Lincoln’s July 4, 1861, message to Congress in support of the idea that some laws are more unconstitutional than others and the president is empowered to violate the one that is least unconstitutional when he has no other option.

I don’t look forward to watching things play out this winter.