On Fox News this morning, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) warned that Democrats should not wield the 14th Amendment as a weapon in the debt-ceiling debate. The amendment, which states that the national debt “shall not be questioned,” has been mentioned by Democrats in recent days as a possible out for President Obama, who has not been able to cut an extension deal with Republicans.
Cornyn, when asked about the chatter, shot down the option. “That’s crazy talk,” he said. “It’s not acceptable for Congress and the president not to do their job and to say somehow that the president has the authority to then basically do this by himself. We ought to sit down and work together, and it shouldn’t take the form of press conferences like the president gave last week, where he was essentially the schoolmarm scolding Congress for not getting its job done when in fact he’s the one who has not stepped up and given us a proposal.”