Deputy Treasury Sec’y: Biden’s ‘a No’ on Using 14th Amendment to Raise Debt Limit, It ‘Can’t Solve our Challenges Now’

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stated that the only way to get out of the issues around the debt ceiling is for Congress to raise the debt limit and President Joe Biden will not invoke the 14th Amendment and doing so “can’t solve our challenges now.”

Adeyemo said, “The 14th Amendment can’t solve our challenges now. Ultimately, the only thing that can do that is Congress doing what it’s done 78 other times, raising the debt limit. We don’t have a plan B that allows us to meet the commitments that we’ve made to our creditors, to our seniors, to our veterans, to the American people. The only plan we have is the one that’s worked for more than 200 years in this country, which is the United States of America needs to pay all of its bills and pay them on time. And Congress has the ability to do that and the President is calling on them to act on that as quickly as possible.”

Co-host Poppy Harlow then asked, “Is that a no?”

Adeyemo answered, “So, the question was whether the United States would use the 14th Amendment. I think the President and the secretary have been very clear that that will not solve our problems now. So, yes, that is a no.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett