FRANKFORT, Ky. (May 25, 2023) – Attorney General Daniel Cameron today made good on his commitment to protect Kentuckians from government overreach. In a letter to President Biden, Attorney General Cameron rejected the notion that the president may invoke the Fourteenth Amendment to unilaterally raise the federal government debt ceiling.
“After so many decades in the D.C. swamp, President Biden should know the limits of executive authority,” said Attorney General Cameron. “Clearly, he does not. Put simply, no president may ignore the Constitution just because it’s convenient to do so.”
In its letter, the coalition of 19 attorneys general points out that the “Constitution very deliberately invests the power of the purse in Congress,” a power that includes the authority to tax, spend, and borrow money on the country’s credit. The letter notes that such authority “constitutes Congress’s strongest defense against a lawless executive.”
The idea that a president can unilaterally authorize new debt for the United States undermines the checks and balances that define our constitutional system, the coalition says. And while the imminent debt ceiling is a challenge that needs to be solved, that can only be done through deliberation, persuasion, and compromise.
“[The] constitutional system may be frustrating at times,” the attorneys general concede. “But it is the fundamental guarantor of American liberty, and we must all abide by the oaths we swore to defend it.”
This is Attorney General Cameron’s latest effort to protect Kentuckians from President Biden’s federal government overreach. The General vigorously challenged the Biden Administration's unlawful attempts to force vaccines on thousands of Kentuckians. He also sued to reverse the unconstitutional cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline and pushed back against President Biden’s illegal rewrite of federal gun laws.
Attorney General Cameron is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.
To view a copy of the letter, click here.