The debt ceiling and the "Constitutional option"

Many on the left have developed a fantasy whereby President Obama resolves the debt-ceiling standoff, which they right see as a result of outrageous political hostage-taking by the Republicans, by decreeing it unconstitutional and issuing bonds anyway. Politically, this is impossible. Obama can't very well make an executive power-grab under a novel constitutional theory when a plurality oppose raising the debt ceiling at all (it's insane, but it's true). Besides, very well-known progressive constitutional scholar Lawrence Tribe argues very persuasively that the "constitutional option" is bunk. One reason he doesn't mention is that we have enough tax revenue to finance our debts, so we won't default in the literal sense unless Tim Geithner chooses to. Not paying people will still prove to be a disaster, though.

This constitutional option is no more constitutional the Republicans' plans during the Bush administration to declare the filibuster of judges unconstitutional. In this climate, it is very likely that articles of impeachment would be drawn up if Obama were idiotic enough to do that. They might even have a non-zero chance of success.