Review and revise Section 4 of the 14th Amendment

President Obama’s suggesting the 14th Amendment to justify the vast incurrence of foreign and domestic debt brings this administration to the peak of folly.

The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments to override the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling of 1857 and to provide full enfranchisement of freed slaves and ensure for them full citizenship. Tagged onto the end in Section 4 is the assertion that “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.” Obviously this is in reference to war debt incurred by the Union in the Civil War, and not for bailouts of banks 150 years into the future. And obviously it “shall not be questioned” by the conquered states. Is this Secretary Geithner’s suggestion?

The Tea Party movement has brought much noise to Congress, and some nonsense. If it gets bogged down in light bulbs and whole milk it will disappear. These are distractions. Transference: They create the impression of doing something when the real work is avoided. In fact the prototype of the Tea Party reached back to 1797 and Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions and I can affirm that it began with a riddle. That was the question of secession brought to President Grant directly after the Civil War related to what to do with Jefferson Davis sitting in jail. And the suggestion to Grant was to set him free. Because the North did not claim the constitutional right to invade the Southern states, they — correctly — claimed "higher law" to free the slaves.

The Civil War is over. New York won. Let's move on. But let's go on with a clean slate and review these ad hoc amendments written by the recent conqueror of the agrarian states with clear and specific regard for Civil War issues. That Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner brings this up today is laughable.