By John Stark
Amid all the chatter about the trillion-dollar coin, Ross Douthat at the New York Times offers some sensible political analysis. He argues (convincingly, I think) that if Obama and his party were seen to be seriously considering such a move, they would look even crazier than the Republicans and shift the tide of public opinion back in the Republicans’ direction.
Why would anyone “see” them as taking the notion seriously?
Sure, it would be crazy to prevent financial hardship and eliminate the threat of default forever.
The trillion-dollar coin idea came up before the last debt ceiling issue. It is not a new idea. It won’t be “played” unless the GOP House is really nuts. The fact that it is getting a lot more attention this time is that a significant number of folks think the GOP House may being run by the crazy wing.
That said, Erza Klein has a different take and I find his understanding of fiscal matters a lot deeper than Ross Douthat.
I don’t like the boss.
Obama does not need congressional approval to mint the coin. he can do it by executive order. And personally I don’t give a flying if he ever cooperates with the nut bag R’s on anything. Why should he after all the abuse and obstruction including get asinine debating of the debt ceiling. The congress can set spending, they have no business not paying the bills.
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on the debt ceiling -
“I’m for whatever gimmick works.”
Adding that “You don’t negotiate with extortionists.”
To be fair, he did call the whole matter crazy.
A ton of important things to do, and the R’s want to waste time haranguing over whether or not to pay the bills they already authorized…now that is what I call crazy. Just more of the same old nonsense that is sinking the R’s and fast making a third party viable…only thing is, the third parties are not organized to do anything effectively. It’s nice to be in Micronesia, eating Mangrove crab, diving at fantastic sites and getting a perspective on how silly we are from afar.
Most interesting has been talks with Chinese citizens about the smog in China and their disdain for the use of coal and it’s contribution to many health problems. Some think their leaders will tell the US anything and the importation is an inside deal to keep us tied to their economy for political gain.