Listening to the hourly NPR newscast at 11:00pm HST (5:00am EDT) I heard Senator John Kyl of Arizona say we won’t default on our debt. “We can’t. The Constitution won’t allow it.”

Er, what?

Senator, unless you and your colleagues in Congress vote to increase the debt ceiling, we certainly can default. How would the Constitution prevent it? Would it magically rise up from its glass-enclosed case at the National Archives and make itself known to buyers of Treasury Bills and Notes, who would then prostrate themselves before it and say “O Constitution, we trust in you and will forbear asking for payment for these financial instruments?”

Man. It’s a good thing Kyl’s retiring; he’s completely lost it.

By the way, if the Constitution did do that, wouldn’t that make it a living document, something all conservatives deny it is?