House Democrats to Obama: Raise debt limit by invoking 14th Amendment if necessary

"A trio of House Democratic leaders is calling on President Obama to move unilaterally to raise the country’s debt ceiling next week if Congress passes anything less than a long-term extension of the federal borrowing limit.

House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (S.C.), Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) and Caucus Vice-Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) said after a closed-door caucus meeting Wednesday that they are calling on Obama both to veto a short-term deal and sign an executive order invoking the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to avert default on Aug. 2.

“I would say to the President that if that’s what lands on his desk – a short term lifting of the debt ceiling -- he should put it on his desk next to an executive order that he will have drawn up,” Clyburn told reporters at the Capitol. “And with the same pen that he vetoes that short term debt ceiling extension, he should sign an executive order invoking the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The notion of invoking the 14th Amendment in order to raise the debt ceiling has gained traction among some Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, as a means of averting default in case Congress does not reach a debt-limit agreement by Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the U.S. faces default"