Does the president have authority to borrow beyond the statutory debt limit? So far, neither President Joe Biden nor House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., is giving ground ahead of debt ceiling talks. Strickland, Note, The Public Debt Clause Debate: Who Controls this Lost Section of the. The president invokes the Civil Warera 14th Amendment to the Constitution to ignore the statutory debt limit and continue to borrow. President Biden has been considering ways to challenge the constitutionality of the debt limit to defuse the risk of default. President Biden has suggested invoking the 14th Amendment of the Constitution after the current debt ceiling standoff. Some Senate Democrats are circulating a letter urging President Joe Biden to prepare to invoke the 14th Amendment to lift the debt ceiling. He is the author of "The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform Why We Need. It and What It Will Take.