A debt ceiling bypass idea that I wrote about on January 2 that may have sounded "fringe" is now clearly mainstream: bypass the debt ceiling fight altogether using legal means. Don't let the Republicans' brand of economic terrorism (give me what I want or I will harm innocent third parties) survive as an option any longer. In our current political calculus, Republicans control only the House -- and that largely by gerrymandering -- yet feel that having 1/3 the political power entitles them to use the debt ceiling as 100% leverage to get further serious entitlement/spending cuts. Sadly, this is not the time to try to highlight their extremism by letting the US Govt Default date approach. Reforming that bunch is not going to happen.
So now is the time to mint the $1T platinum coin. (Or 1,000 $1B platinum coins, but why waste the metal?) And then instruct the Treasury Secretary to hold on to it and be prepared to deposit it at the Fed once the Republicans make it clear they're willing to blow up the economy if they don't get what they want. Take the debt ceiling off the table today, before all the hype and news attention centers on the fight.
Of course Republicans will scream tyranny and executive overreach. But it seems pretty clearly constitutional. And furthermore, it's Congress who racked up the bills. Tax cuts and unfunded wars and unfunded entitlement increases all happened on the Republicans watch. Now they're bitching because the Treasury has to borrow to pay the bills they incurred.
