Think the idea of putting a trillion dollar coin into the treasury in order to solve the debt ceiling is silly?
Of course it is!
Just not quite as silly as a handful of legislators who don't want to honor the very obligations that they created. Oh, yeah, we want the program. Yeah, we passed that program. But now that the bill is due, we don't want to PAY for that program.
Not quite as silly as holding the entire country hostage, and being oblivious to the financial destruction your temper tantrum has caused. The last time the Tea Party fanatics pulled this hissy, the credit rating of the United States got downgraded. For some reason, the one sure thing that gets creditors upset is if you say - naw, we're not gonna pay that debt we owe. Imagine that.
Do I want the budget balanced? Yes, but the best path to that is to have people working again, to lower the unemployment rate and pay people decent wages. The Progressive Caucus repeatedly offer budgets that would bring us into balance more quickly than any other plan offered, and it gets ignored by politicians outside the caucus and the media alike. The real way to cure the deficit and effective government? Elect more progressives Tragically, not very likely with Congressional districts throughout the country gerrymandered to favor the most extreme conservatives.
And no, the federal budget is not like your household budget. You don't have the power to raise taxes. You don't have the power to print money. You might not like those things, and worry about the risks involved. Nevertheless, they can do it. And you can't.
They have got to have the power to run deficits when we need to, as in recessions, wars and environmental crisis They need to be able to collect surpluses to carry us through times when we will need that surplus. The true crime was in the squandering of the surplus coming out of the Clinton administration, with tax cuts to the wealthy, unfunded wars, and Medicare Part D. Everything that President Obama has done has been to get us out of this recession and to bring things back into balance.
The platinum trillion dollar coin may be silly. But not as silly and dangerous as the alternative. It can be done. Ir's legal, and it spares us the true madness and chaos.
Let's do it!
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