Pucker Factor

 Josh Marshall has - as usual - been insightful about how Democrats have changed in their attitudes about the debt ceiling since 2011 and how the DC press have not understood this change. Marshall has also been reporting that it sure looks like Biden is preparing to ignore the debt ceiling.

The reasoning is pretty straightforward. This is not a question of negotiating a deal with House leadership and enough sane Republicans to get a clean increase. House leadership is now - de facto - Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Traitor-Green. What's more, you don't negotiate with hostage takers, because it rewards hostage taking.

So, according to Marshall, they are considering their options. Those options are

1) Mint a trillion dollar coin. Marshall thinks this is exceedingly unlikely to happen.
2) Pay some accounts and not others, like a shutdown. This also seems unlikely. Plus, it equates debt default with a shutdown, which are different things.
3) Use the XIVth Amendment. Basically, when the debt ceiling is breached, point out that the debt ceiling is and always has been unconstitutional under the terms of the Mighty 14th. That amendment explicitly states that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, as authorized by law...shall not be questioned."
4) Issue something called "consol bonds" which can exist forever without being redeemed. Marshall explains:
In short, the Treasury can issue bonds that have no “face value” but pay interest forever. That piece of paper has a lot of actual value since it’s a guarantee of payment forever. Thus people will pay a lot for it. But it has no “face value.” Thus it doesn’t add to the national debt. The debt limit doesn’t cover it. It increases the the government’s obligations but it’s not debt.

Again, 1&2 seem unlikely or unmanageable. Ideally, you could use 3 to end this farce forever. The use of 4 basically relies on some precedent as its been done before and enough people buying those bonds to float more "debt that isn't debt."

No one asked me, but I would pursue 3&4 simultaneously. Option 3 ultimately relies on the Supreme Court and anyone who thinks they can predict that ruling is insane. The text of the Amendment is clear, and the consequences of default are so extreme, that the Court might acquiesce to this move by a Democratic president. Or maybe not! Exciting!

But if you also issued consol bonds, you could cover your bases while the Court dithers.

The best outcome, of course, is that we rid the country of this nonsense forever (option 3) while covering our butts (option 4).

At the very least, it's encouraging to hear that there is proactive planning in the White House for dealing with the fundamental insanity of the House GOP.