Coins Against Crazies

[rareboy]

I don't know if you all caught Paul Grugman's piece on the trillion dollar coin this week, but what he's saying seems to make a lot of sense as a tactic to use against the Tea Party crazies in control of Congrss.

It’s crucial to understand three things about this situation. First, raising the debt ceiling wouldn’t grant the president any new powers; every dollar he spent would still have to be approved by Congress. Second, if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the president will be forced to break the law, one way or another; either he borrows funds in defiance of Congress, or he fails to spend money Congress has told him to spend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/op...zies.html?_r=0

Now the concept may be enough to make some heads here explode...but will it be better for a bunch of used car salesmen from Bumfuck, Anystate to wreck the world economy by pushing the US to default or just convert the debt and avoid triggering a recession just so that the Republicans think they have something they can use for the mid-terms?

[Jack Springer]

His name is Paul Krugman.

The Administration threw water on the dumb idea on Friday.

[Zu-Mendel]

If Congress won't do its job then Obama should just do away with the debt ceiling entirely, and dare the SCOTUS to wreck the economy. Roberts won't go down in history as the man who single-handily causes a recession.

[loki81]

seems like only yesterday that Obama himself was playing hostage taker and filibustering raising the debt ceiling as a Senator.

if we have a debt ceiling, I think that raising it should be coupled with serious talks about our spending priorities and how we're going to address that debt going forward.

if we're supposed to treat the debt ceiling like a mere formality and just rubber-stamp raise it into infinity, I don't really see a point to its existence.

either way, giving the Constitution the finger probably isn't the greatest solution.

[JayHawk]

Exactly. SO the President should use the Constitution via the fourteenth Amendment to honor the debt created legally by congress UNTIL congress changes spending or increases the debt. Seems rather clear to me.

[chance1]

seems like only yesterday that Obama himself was playing hostage taker and filibustering raising the debt ceiling as a Senator.

if we have a debt ceiling, I think that raising it should be coupled with serious talks about our spending priorities and how we're going to address that debt going forward.

if we're supposed to treat the debt ceiling like a mere formality and just rubber-stamp raise it into infinity, I don't really see a point to its existence.

either way, giving the Constitution the finger probably isn't the greatest solution.

hostage taking - a wonderful phrase

is a republican congressional thing ONLY

LOL

Obamallegiance requires strict interpretation here

oh yeah - the president is a hostage taker - it's sort of his "A" and only move lately

[rareboy]

One increasingly suspects that the only reason the debt ceiling exists is to be used as a political cudgel.

[JB3]

Exactly. SO the President should use the Constitution via the fourteenth Amendment to honor the debt created legally by congress UNTIL congress changes spending or increases the debt. Seems rather clear to me.

He won't do it. He does not want to set off a constitutional case that could result in him being on the losing end.

[JayHawk]

He won't do it. He does not want to set off a constitutional case that could result in him being on the losing end.

Besides that i think he is quite warily eyeing his second term trying not to have some debacle that overshadows the entire thing. He poo pooed the idea when Bill Clinton said he would have used the 14th in a heartbeat.

Yet to me that is the clear constitutional choice. That and as has been pointed out Stevens will not want to be the cause of a world wide recession. So I think just like Health Care the Justice would lean into the sanity side of things.

[Jack Springer]