Obama The Usurper?

If Congress fails to extend the debt ceiling, can Obama go around it and extend it Himself?

Well, no. As Jonathan Adler points out on Volokh,

the argument that the President could unilaterally breach the debt ceiling is one of those constitutional arguments that may seem superficially appealing, but that falls apart under scrutiny.  As Laurence Tribe has pointed out, such a move would entail the usurpation of a power expressly delegated to the legislature and cause the very evil — calling the nation’s debts into question — that Section 4 of the 14th Amendment was drafted to prevent.

InstaPundit adds:

It would, I believe, be grounds for declaring the President a usurper and illegitimate, fit not only for impeachment, but for having all of his actions disregarded from that point on; it could be the trigger for something like a civil war. I think the White House agrees, which is why they aren’t buying this argument put forth by law professors with more ingenuity than political sense.

I’m not a law professor, but hasn’t Obama already done things that “entail the usurpation of a power expressly delegated to the legislature,” such as refusing to enforce parts of duly enacted laws, i.e., laws that he supported and signed, that he finds inconvenient?

Obama may well be unwavering in his opposition to negotiate with Republicans (who, after all represent only about half the country while He embodies them all), but when it comes to picking and choosing what laws or parts of laws to “faithfully execute,” his waivering is breathtaking and unprecedented.

(Come to think of it, why have no liberals filed a lawsuit claiming that Article Two’s “faithfully execute” requirement is, well, you know, l unconstitutional or something, because it imposes a religious test for office?)