Indeed, as the deadline for raising the debt ceiling neared, Henry Aaron, a distinguished senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, pointed out that the US Constitution requires the president “to spend what Congress has instructed him to spend, to raise only those taxes Congress has authorized him to impose, and to borrow no more than Congress authorizes.” Honoring all three of those legal obligations simultaneously is impossible if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, but raising the debt ceiling without Congressional approval, though illegal and an impeachable offense, was the least-bad choice.