Biden leaves the door open to solving the debt ceiling crisis without Congress — and it could get rid of the debate forever

• Biden left the door open to using the 14th amendment to solve the debt ceiling crisis on Tuesday.
• A clause in the amendment would declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and get rid of the issue forever.

President Joe Biden finally met with top lawmakers to discuss raising the debt ceiling, and little progress was made. But the president did leave the door open to solving the crisis while avoiding congressional drama.

On Tuesday, Biden sat down with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an attempt to come to an agreement on the best way to raise the debt ceiling before the US defaults — something Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said could happen as early as June 1.

Going into the meeting, both sides were firm in their debt ceiling positions, and they all emerged unchanged. The Republican lawmakers still hold the belief that raising the debt ceiling should be accompanied with spending cuts like those in the bill the House GOP passed in late April, while the Democrats maintained that avoiding a default should be bipartisan with a clean debt ceiling increase, no spending cuts attached.

"I didn't see any new movement," McCarthy told reporters following the meeting.

"I would hope that he'd be willing to negotiate for the next two weeks so we could actually solve this problem and not take America on the brink," he added, referring to Biden.

But Biden's remarks following the meeting suggest the president might be weighing another path to avert an economically catastrophic crisis without Congress. When asked if he would consider invoking a clause in the 14th amendment that would declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional, Biden responded that he has been "considering" doing so.

"But the problem is it would have to be litigated," he added. "And in the meantime, without an extension, it would still end up in the same place. I'll be very blunt with you: When we get by this, I'm thinking about taking a look at — months down the road — to see what the court would say about whether or not it does work."

He later said that he doesn't think the 14th amendment "solves our problem now. I think that only solves your problem once the court has ruled that it does apply for future endeavors."

The referenced clause in the 14th amendment states that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." Many legal experts have argued that this clause makes a default — and thus the debt ceiling law leading to that default — unconstitutional.

Still, Biden is not alone in his concerns with sidestepping Congress to solve this crisis. Yellen, for example, dismissed using the 14th amendment on ABC News on Sunday, saying that "I don't want to consider emergency options."

"There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy, other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills and we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt," Yellen said. "This would be a constitutional crisis."

Aside from the 14th amendment, another route that could allow Biden to avoid Congress and take care of the debt ceiling would be minting a $1 trillion platinum coin. When asked about that option on Tuesday, Biden said that "I don't think anybody has studied the minting of the coin issue." That's not necessarily true, according to The New York Times, which reported last week administration officials have discussed that route.

Regardless of the internal discussions, though, administration officials have publicly rejected any route other than Congress coming together to save the country from an unprecedented default, which is getting closer by the day. Biden is meeting again with the top four congressional leaders on Friday to make another attempt at an agreement.