From: Timothy Gatto

Everybody knows that this so-called government shutdown is bullshit. Everybody knows who the actors are and everybody knows why they are doing the things they are doing. The insane chatter on MSNBC,CNN and all the other networks is just crap to keep us on edge. The Government is not going to default on the 17th and everyone knows it.

If the Government does default or gets close to defaulting, the President could use the 14th Amendment to issue an Executive Order to keep the government running and stop any default. The Fourth part of the 14th Amendment states:

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

According to Fortune Magazine's Roger Parloff, (senior editor):

The inevitable crisis arises because the President has a Constitutional obligation to "take care that the laws ... be faithfully executed," which means spending money at the levels Congress has mandated. Yet his only source of funds with which to do so are the revenues Congress permits him to raise via taxes or the funds it permits him to borrow by issuing public debt. (The Constitution gives Congress control over all three functions: spending, taxation, and borrowing.) If the President fails to come up with the requisite money to spend, he'll default on the public debt in violation of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment.

So the debt-ceiling law places the President in what Buchanan and Dorf call a "trilemma," with no way out. Under the Constitution, he can't default, he can't unilaterally raise taxes, and he can't unilaterally borrow. In such a predicament, those scholars believe he is obliged to take the "least unconstitutional" approach, which, for reasons they outline, they think would be invalidating the debt-ceiling and issuing new debt -- which they call "Presidential debt," because it would have no Congressional authorization.

President Obama, a Constitutional scholar and lawyer knows what time it is. He will absolutely will not allow the Federal Government to default. The Republican extremists know this and are trying to force his hand. He is damned if he does let the government default and he will be damned by using an Executive Order to keep it running. In fact the entire Federal Government should be damned for taking this nation into uncharted territory.

If they force the President into a dictatorial position, he will take it. Unless the Congress negotiates some compromise that will satisfy the President, he will veto any compromise that is put in front of him. This is reality. This is what the House of Representatives doesn't seem to understand. If this was a game of chess, he would have them checked. The 14th Amendment would be check mate.
This isn't a game that the Administration wants to play, but if the obstructionists in Congress want to push the boundaries of the Constitution, they will effectively be in rebellion. If they don't want to play by the rules that the Constitution requires, than they should be impeached.

This should be the threat that the Senate and the Executive branch should be using. If these people that sought elective office don't want to do their jobs, than they should be replaced. I'm sure that the majority of people in this country feel the same way.

The problem we are facing is due to the gerrymandering of Congressional districts that reflect the interests of the corporate party that drew the districts up. It is not only Republicans that are involved in Gerrymandering Congressional Districts, it is also the Democrats that do it. They turn a blind eye to each other as they connive to form districts that are predominantly Republican or Democratic districts.

They are almost invulnerable to recalls because these districts will not go against party lines. This is precisely why this nation needs more than two Corporate Political Parties. This gridlock is ridiculous when you consider that a small minority has taken the nation hostage for their own political gain. This situation also exposes how hopeless the political situation in America has become. It is completely understandable on how this situation happened. These politicians on both sides of the fence have tried to consolidate power and they have achieved it. Now we are deadlocked into a position whereby the President may have to use the "least unconstitutional" approach to solving this dilemma.

This should be a lesson to the entire nation on why a two-party system of government is the least desired form of governance. Independents of any political persuasion should rise up and take the government back by voting for candidates that are not affiliated with either corporately run political party. The House of representatives should be taken back from the Koch brothers and other political operatives.

The Supreme Court ruling of Citizen's United is one reason we are in the predicament we are in. Groups like the Heritage Institute run by Former Senator Jim DeMint has power that average citizens' like you and I do not. The two-party system is an archaic institution that must be replaced if we want an effective form of government. One political party should not be able to force the nation into bankruptcy. This is a ridiculous situation. Do not, under any circumstances, allow the Democrats and Republicans to keep control of the Federal government. They have shown us that this system does not work.

One example of this fracture of the two-party system was the Civil War. The system should have been replaced after political parties caused over 600,000 Americans to lose their lives. This situation we are in is not unlike the situation before the Civil War. There are more than two opinions and outlooks on any situation. The Democrats don't represent the workers and the Middle Class anymore. We are losing our Middle Class and most Democrats could care less. The Republicans certainly don't represent the workers and the Middle Class and there is nobody looking out for the poor and downtrodden whose numbers rise each and every day in the supposedly "richest nation on Earth".

Consider what I am saying here. There is nobody minding the store in this nation. The people that have been elected to do a job are simply not doing what they were elected to do. This goes for both parties. They have done an effective job however, in displaying why the two-party system is a farce.

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Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" available from Oliver Arts and Open Press.

By Timothy V. Gatto, a retired Army Sergeant and former Chairman of The Liberal Party of America. He can be reached at: timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.