White House won't rule out Trillion dollar coin to avoid debt ceiling crisis

[reg_indy]

But what truly is the chances of getting the $16T paid down? I'd say slim to nil. The only way to decrease the debt would be to inflate the money. And a $1T coin could do just that. With our national security at stake I wouldn't put it passed our government.

keep in mind the debt ceiling is all about payiong bils associated with current debt, and has nothing to do with future debt/spending.

This coin thing would only allow for payment of existing bills.

[skeemer]

Why stop at 16? Why not just have Treasury mint as many $1 trillion coins as it can, cut all taxes to zero and have the coins be used for ALL government spending?

Bingo!

[MithrilKnight]

Last I checked, that's what Budgets are for. The budgetary process is where these issues should be handled.

The Debt Ceiling should NOT be used for negotiations over the budget.

Exactly. If the GOP controlled House wants a balanced budget, then propose one. Put out a budget that spends exactly 3% more than tax revenues, the supposed appropriate amount of debt.
It's their JOB to appropriate funds and determine who gets what monies.

Honestly, I'd like to see a Democratic one too, and see the House debate them, negotiate what gets spent where, what taxes need to be increased or cut, and have an overall plan going forward.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either.

[MithrilKnight]

Why stop at 16? Why not just have Treasury mint as many $1 trillion coins as it can, cut all taxes to zero and have the coins be used for ALL government spending?

Technically, they could, because as I understand it the coin is essentially the same as issuing bonds. The reason it's potentially non-inflationary is the government would "buy it back" with bonds if/when the debt ceiling were raised. The Executive Branch cannot legally issue new bonds at will, but it CAN print the money and "buy it back" later.


But to be clear, in my opinion the 14th Amendment is the only viable option as it abolishes the debt ceiling. The President would only be spending money budgeted and allocated by the Congress. He, or she, would not be incurring new debt or willy-nilly adding new programs. Everything would go through Congress. Of course part of the problem is inflation itself. They could make the debt ceiling $100 trillion, or $1 quadrillion, and eventually we'd hit it. It's stupid.

On the other hand, what Obama initially asked for was giving the President the ability to raise the debt ceiling himself. Now, imo, that WAS a usurping of powers because then he'd have the power to add debt NOT authorized by Congress. The Executive could say, "I'm going to raise the debt ceiling to pay for this other stuff you don't need to know about." Yeah, "f" that.

[Sagittarius]

The first Obama coin!

Here's your Obama money.

[SemiAuto]

Exactly. If the GOP controlled House wants a balanced budget, then propose one. Put out a budget that spends exactly 3% more than tax revenues, the supposed appropriate amount of debt.
It's their JOB to appropriate funds and determine who gets what monies.

Honestly, I'd like to see a Democratic one too, and see the House debate them, negotiate what gets spent where, what taxes need to be increased or cut, and have an overall plan going forward.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either.

The house did pass a budget.

[flyboy56]

We are not a banana republic and we will not create a $1T coin. We will pay down our debt the responsible way, and that is work hard, cut spending and pay more taxes. This is exactly what the world would expect of the United States.

[Rael]

Honestly, I'd like to see a Democratic one too, and see the House debate them, negotiate what gets spent where, what taxes need to be increased or cut, and have an overall plan going forward.

You mean you want both sides to spend precious ideologically useful moments actually governing? Surely you jest...