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272The 2011 Debt Limit Impasse: Treasury’s Actions & The Counterfactual – What Might Have Happened if the National Debt Hit the Statutory LimitII. The Counterfactual: What Would Have Happened if theUnited States Hit the Debt Limit in August 2011?Despite the protracted negotiations, political leaders were able toreach a compromise to raise the debt limit just before the governmentexhausted all borrowing authority. Therefore, it is unclear whatevents may have transpired if an agreement was not reached byAugust 2, 2011. The following discussion considers the alternativesthe President may have elected to pursue, and the legal grounds onwhich such decisions could have been defended, if the public debthit the statutory limit and spending obligations exceeded projectedrevenues.The Constitution grants Congress the power to spend, the power totax, and the power to borrow. The Executive enforces congressionalaction in these areas by spending the money Congress appropriates,raising revenue within the bounds of the tax code, and borrowingmoney to fulfill any projected shortfalls. However, just as the taxcode presents a limit on the Executive’s authority to raise revenuethrough taxation, the debt limit provides an upper boundary on howmuch the Executive can borrow. These revenue-raising constraintsare coupled with the President’s longstanding obligation to spend allmoney appropriated by Congress. Thus, when the country reachesthe debt limit, the Executive faces a dilemma: assuming that thePresident cannot unilaterally raise taxes, the Executive must eitherspend less than Congress appropriated or borrow more than the debtlimit permits. Something must give.A. Legal Background1. The Fourteenth AmendmentAny decision the President may have made if borrowing authorityhad been exhausted before a compromise was reached would havebeen made in light of section four of the Fourteenth Amendment(“Public Debt Clause” 103 ). The Clause states: “The validity of the103The “Public Debt Clause” was coined by Professor Michael Abramowicz. Michael B.Abramowicz, Train Wrecks, Budget Deficits, and the Entitlements Explosion: Exploring the Implicationsof the Fourteenth Amendment’s Public Debt Clause (GWU Law School Public Law