The debt ceiling

Recently there has been quite a bit of talk about the 14th amendment and whether it gives the President the power to override congress and raise the debt ceiling on his own. The main focus of this talk has been section 4 that does talk about debt that has been incurred from wars and other insurrections. The debate is that since this section was specifically about the Civil war and making a distinction between the obligations to repay union soldiers vs. repayment of confederate soldiers is it a valid argument for today?

Here is section 4 of the 14th amendment and you can see that it can be interpreted in a few different ways.  "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. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void."

Here is what Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had to say on the matter as report in the Huffington Post on July 7 "So people are looking at the fact that maybe the debt ceiling bill that Congress presumably has to pass for the government to borrow more maybe is contrary to that constitutional provision, and that the administration may take out [loans] on their own -- just to borrow money -- and say that they can ignore the law," he said.