Krugman: So What Will You Do, Mr. President?

[DanTex]

If I’d spent the past five years living in a monastery or something, I would take the Treasury Department’s declaration that the coin option is out as a sign that there’s some other plan ready to go. Maybe 14th Amendment, maybe moral obligation coupons or some other form of scrip, something.

And maybe there is a plan.

But as we all know, the last debt ceiling confrontation crept up on the White House because Obama refused to believe that Republicans would actually threaten to provoke default. Is the WH being realistic this time, or does it still rely on the sanity of crazies?

The thing is, the coin option sounds silly, but it clearly obeys the letter of the law. As far as I can tell, none of the other options — other than outright surrender — has the same virtue. Failing to pay debt service would be a breach of contract. Paying contractors, and maybe Social Security recipients, in scrip would violate the law, which says that they should be paid — not given IOUs. Deciding that the president has the right to ignore the debt limit after all would avoid these legal breaches at the expense of another breach.
...

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/so-what-will-you-do-mr-president/

I agree. Why take the coin off the table?

[NorthCarolina]

1. "Why take the coin off the table?" How do you

go about your plan to "fix" the social safety net without some sort of "fight" wherein' the GOP can "force" Dems to make the "tough" choices?

[NorthCarolina]

4. Does anyone know where the idea to mint the coin originated?

I know doing so is in accordance with the Constitution, but does anyone know who first made public mention of actually doing it as a means to sidestep debt ceiling negotiations?

[PoliticAverse]

6. You can read the history of the idea on this Wikipedia page...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion_Dollar_Coin

[NorthCarolina]

7. Thanks for the link

Never thought of checking Wikipedia since I assumed the coin idea was too new to have anything posted. Guess I was wrong there.

For those who may be interested, here is what i found:

" The specific concept was first introduced by Carlos Mucha, a lawyer who commented under the name "beowulf" on various blogs."

"Beowulf" said the trillion dollar coin idea is more rightly attributed to a small discussion group than to an individual, adding that the group was "just in it for the lulz."

So, it was Anonymous!?!

Who'da thunk'it...thanks for the link again PoliticAverse, I will have to check Wikipedia more frequently than before.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Republicans are honorable people.

They deserve for us to be honorable, too.

We must negotiate like men, then fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

[PoliticAverse]

3. "Maybe 14th Amendment" - Krugman apparently has a short memory...

"This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling -- period," Carney said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/debt-ceiling-14th-amendment_n_2257610.html

[ThomThom]

5. Can't the President just order the bills paid and let Congress do what they will?

The debt ceiling is really a problem for Congress. Why negotiate? They need to do their job.
After all it was Congress that spent the money and didn't raise revenues to cover it.

[n2doc]

8. I will go there

If Obama allows the country to go into default, he should be impeached. Because he clearly has at least 1 legal option to avoid that.

I do not think he will allow the country to go into default. He is too smart, and responsible a person, to allow that to happen. So he has something planned. We shall see what it is. We are not dealing with Joe schmoe from the backwoods here. People need to remember this.