Questioning the Validity of the National Debt*

In violation of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment

On July 9, 1868 the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution was officially ratified. Hidden within this amendment is wording that enshrined the federal government with perpetual debt.

In recent years, partly in response to the growing federal debt, people have begun protesting in opposition to the debt racked up by Congress. In late 2008 a group in Phoenix, AZ began the “It’s not my debt” campaign. In response to this campaign a small political party passed a resolution that reads: “The national committee of the Boston Tea Party hereby calls upon both houses of the US Congress to promptly pass,and calls upon the state legislatures to ratify, a constitutional amendment repealing section 4 of the 14th amendment, prohibiting future indebtedness and deficit spending on the part of the federal government, and repudiating all federal government debt and debt service obligations accrued prior to the ratification of said amendment.”

The federal debt gained some mainstream media attention last year when Congress was debating whether or not and by how much to raise the debt ceiling. As predicted, Congress did not say, “No, we will not raise the debt ceiling.” Members of Congress came to a compromise that increased the debt ceiling, further inflated the currency and has continued to enslave tax-payers with a perpetual debt that will never be paid off.

In the 144 years since the ratification of this amendment, I don’t know of any attempt to hold a national rally to publicly question the validity of the national debt. On the anniversary of the enshrinement of the national debt, activists from across the country will gather in public to question the validity of the national debt.

It is past time for Congress to admit publicly the debt will never be paid off and repudiate the debt, because it is invalid. An alternate proposal for eliminating the debt, is to eliminate the federal government that created the debt. Again, not an easy task, though one that will likely occur at some point in the future; either being replaced by a new national government or with a total collapse of these United States of America. There are many theories of what a post USA North America would look like, though most agree that there will be at least 8 new nations. I’d prefer to see a peaceful split of the country rather than a violent rebellion.