As the United States heads toward running out of cash in a few weeks, here's a reminder how this happened:
* The law says what tax rates are, determining revenue.
* Each year laws are enacted that direct money to be spent a certain way.
* An older law limits national debt.
* Republicans drove up the debt during the Trump Admin (tax cuts, airline bailouts, etc) so that the limit is about to be reached.
The laws are logically incompatible.
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An even older law says: "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."
So, there's that.
@ScottSoCal As I said in other replies, the 14th Amendment (perhaps) rules out defaulting on debt, but it does not say how to get there. It doesn't say which law the president is permitted to ignore. For example, the president could unilaterally institute new taxes to raise the revenue rather than taking on more debt.