The Legal Ponzi Scheme

The 14th Amendment reads, "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law ... shall not be questioned."

What happens when Congress fails to make new laws to keep the Ponzi scheme going (raising the debt ceiling) as is now being threatened? You need to understand the definition of this scam to to think about it, so I present the definition of the fraud made famous by Charles Ponzi back in 1910, with some tweaks by yours truly to bring it up to this century:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent government budget investment operation that pays returns to Wall Street, Banks, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Defense, Federal employees, Congress, Unions, Special interests, Welfare, Food Stamps, Grants, Student Loans, separate investors, not from any actual current generation's taxes profit
earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent generations investors. The congressional budget Ponzi scheme usually buys votes to stay in power or gain office entices new investors by offering returns other people that actually have to pay for it
investments cannot guarantee, in the form of outrageous salaries, pensions, perks, promises, programs short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that our government a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from the banking oligarchy comprised of privately held central banks disguised as legitimate government entities with names like "Federal Reserve" who print the money out of thin air and charge us interest on it investors to keep the scheme going.

The system is destined to collapse because the earnings of the present generation earnings, if any, are less than the spending and promises of past generations payments to investors .

If the White House were to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional, it could continue to meet its financial obligations. However, "Obama would have a hard time justifying issuing new debt to pay old debt" according to George Bush's former Office of Legal Council head Steve Bradbury.
A hard time? Extending fraud that is punishable by prison time in the real world would be "hard"? Well, I guess that's why Congress has quietly raised the debt ceiling 10 times in the last 12 years. If it's LEGAL via Congress, it's OK. Otherwise, you get the Madoff Treatment. Fear not, citizens. Our tireless leaders will find a "compromise" somehow, someway. Otherwise, the reality that as a country we are already in default and can't possibly pay off our debts or even meet our current obligations would surface. That cannot be allowed. Is it just me or does that can not go quite as far when you kick it these days?