Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said during a town hall on Friday night that the debt limit should be eliminated because of the Constitution.
Ocasio-Cortez made the comments during a town hall in Queens on Friday night.
"I still believe, first of all, that we should start to implement [the 14th Amendment] anyway because we should eliminate the debt limit in the United States because of the Constitutional reasons," Ocasio-Cortez said.
The Congresswoman was making the comments in response to a question asking if the 14th Amendment should be used by President Biden to raise the debt himself without Congress approving it.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a news conference with Democratic lawmakers about the Biden administrations border politics, outside the U.S. Capitol on January 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
While Ocasio-Cortez said during the town hall that Biden believes he "has this authority," people within his administration say that it won't be invoked.
"The 14th Amendment can’t solve our challenges now. Ultimately, the only thing that can do that is Congress doing what it’s done 78 other times — raising the debt limit," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said during a CNN interview on Thursday. "We don’t have a plan B that allows us to meet the commitments that we’ve made to our creditors, to our seniors, to our veterans, to the American people."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"I think the president and secretary are clear that that will not solve our problems now. So, yes, that is a no," Adeyemo said when asked about the 14th Amendment.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Friday that the government is expected to run out of cash to pay its debts by June 5.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Finance Committee about President Joe Biden's proposed budget request for the fiscal year 2024, Thursday, March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin / AP Newsroom)
"Since January, I have highlighted to you the risk that Treasury would be unable to satisfy all of our obligations by early June if Congress did not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time. In my letters, I also noted that I would continue to update Congress as more information became available," Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
FOX Business' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.