Payment of Debts

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday comes from Article I.8.1: "The people of the states empower the Congress to use the money collected through taxes to pay its debts."

This principle gave Congress the authority and power to use the tax revenue to pay the nation's debts. Congress had the power to contract debts so it was only right that it also had the power to pay off the debts. At the time of the writing of the Constitution, the nation was far in debt with expenses from the Revolutionary War. The states also had incurred great debts in the war. The Constitution was the means where the nation assumed the war debts of the states.