The White House better be considering the 14th Amendment solution now.

It might be our only hope of avoiding total and complete collapse.

I hope the Congressional Dems will have his back

or be seen as responsible for a default. Even the Senate Republicans will back Obama for stepping up and saving the country.

a 1 trillion dollar platinum coin.. its legal.. they could sell it to the fed and use the newly created monet to fund things until congress raises the ceiling. then they buy back the coin and issue the new debt

They could sell land or property to the FED for the needed funds, and then buy it back for a dollar.

either way there is nothing teh GOP could do about it except boner could cry some more

No legal uncertainty.

Just curious... I've never paid much attention to this stuff before.

under the coinage act the treasury can mint a platinum coin in any denomination it wishes.
heres the actual law
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/31/usc_sec_31_00005112----000-.html
The Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.

all they have to do is mint 2 one trillion dollar platinum proof coins and deposit them into the treasurys account at the fed.. then they can write 2T in checks.

Then they could pay off all of our debt and none of us would ever have to pay taxes again. Our standard of living would jump up and we would have every social program possible completely funded forever. If fact we could retire at 35 or so with SS payments 10 times what they are now. Great idea.

Somewhere, somebody is already penning a movie involving this coin, featuring Nicolas Cage.

the fed created 2 T out of thin air with QE1 and and there was no inflation

And then we talk about the devaluation of the dollar... $1= .8488 Euros in Jan 2006 now it is .6991. That's a -17.2466856% rate. Down 22% from the tightly controlled Yuan.

"The main cause of hyperinflation is a massive and rapid increase in the amount of money (including bank credit, deposits, and currency) that is not supported by a corresponding growth in the output of goods and services. This results in an imbalance between the supply and demand for the money, accompanied by a complete loss of confidence in the money, similar to a bank run."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation#Root_causes_of_hyperinflation


How about historically:



The gold mark is tied to gold prices, the Reich mark was not.


Or in America:

The United States has avoided hyperinflation. It came close, however, during the Revolutionary War, when the revolutionary government churned out paper continentals to pay bills. The monthly inflation rate reached a peak of 47 percent in November 1779 (Bernholz 2003: 48). A second close encounter occurred during the Civil War, when the Union government printed greenbacks to finance the war effort. Inflation peaked at a monthly rate of 40 percent in March 1864 (Bernholz 2003: 107).

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj29n2/cj29n2-8.pdf

Or the worst of all time:



This is a bill printed in 1946 and its denomination was 100 QUINTILLION (100,000,000,000,000,000,000) and a second denomination was printed that was ten times that but never circulated.

It is completely legal, it would avoid a constitutional crisis, and if he can manage to squeak by until 2012 WE can make sure that the congress is not full of idiots. I actually doubt it would cause any serious inflation in the timespan of a year or two.

I wish I could remember where I heard or read this but here goes - could the House vote to impeach Obama if he used the 14th? It seems a bit far fetched and I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it's even a consideration. With these tea party loons I wouldn't be surprised. Even if it did happen, the Senate wouldn't go for it - don't they convict? For what?

They should impeach Boehner and Cantor. Cantor creeps me out.

If Obama wins in 2012 with a Republican House they will likely find some BS reason to impeach him anyway, just like you know who and the voluptuous intern. This would just be letting the teabaggers get it all out of their system early.

So who gives a shit. The Senate will dismiss the charges and that will be that.

there is established SCOTUS precedent for doing this, having to do with the gold standard, IIRC

let's see.....

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0707_debt_ceiling_galston.aspx

For their part, some Democrats have urged President Obama to invoke Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” Doing so would plunge the government into uncharted constitutional waters and all-out partisan warfare.

On the one hand, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution clearly vests the power to “borrow Money on the credit of the United States” in the legislative branch, casting doubt on the president’s ability to issue debt in the absence of congressional authorization.

On the other hand, the power to borrow money entails the obligation to repay it, and it is up to Congress to meet that obligation—a legal obligation reinforced by the 14th Amendment. While the amendment’s language is rooted in the specific circumstances of the Civil War, the Supreme Court has been inclined to read it more broadly. In Perry v. the United States, one of the Gold Standard cases decided in 1935, the Court declared that:

''The Constitution gives to the Congress the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States, an unqualified power, a power vital to the Government, upon which in an extremity its very life may depend. The binding quality of the promise of the United States is of the essence of the credit which is so pledged.

Having this power to authorize the issue of definite obligations for the payment of money borrowed, the Congress has not been vested with authority to alter or destroy those obligations.''

Best to do it when all other options have been tried and failed so it looks like a last resort. It will be important to show that it was a last resort move in the event they have to defend this move in front of the Supreme Court.

:nuke:

Unfortunately he's proven to be a wimp.

He has taken some really risky bets that would have been horrible if they went sideways. For instance shooting the pirates with 3 simultaneous snipers, taking out bin Laden in foreign territory with a seal team. I think that he is trying to keep a moderate appearance in domestic politics because he honestly thinks he can reason and guilt trip the GOP. This is obviously a failing plan, but I think if he really needs to he will do something drastic.

president the authority to borrow money without the consent of Congress.

by the 14th amendment (or at least SHOULD be), so too is the president.

He must do whatever he can to avoid default.

And, if push comes to shove - and Congress is hopelessly deadlocked, Obama has options that actually do not raise the ceiling, but finds the money in a different avenue.

It will cause him to be impeached - but when faced with a deadlocked Senate and Congress - if the GOP tried to impeach him for saving the country against default.....they would go the way of the dinosaurs - they would be wiped out.

the maniacs that impeached Clinton

it's the best thing that can happen to Obama, and could save his presidency....if he has the nerve

if he believes his burnished rhetoric the only choice he HAS is to invoke the 14th

Obama has to do all he can do LEGALLY.

congress MAY NOT ignore the obligations of the US government

if they do, president may....MUST.....step in

Not appropriations required by "regular" statutes?

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

It's important enough that they would have needed to address it, and it would show the President to be honorable.

Why not?

Its against their rules. There must be a genuine issue as opposed to a hypothetical one. There also must be a party who has standing.