comment: >
  
  Hope Joe mints the trillion COIN
context: Republicans don't care about consequences. All they care about is hurting people. They know that in 21 Months, Screaming "Look at the Fucking Mess the Democrats have Made!!!" will resonate with All of their voters, and far too many people that claim to be Independents. >
  
  
  Republicans don’t care about consequences. All they care about is hurting people.
  
  Except in this case, they’d be hurting themselves—and, more importantly, the rich assholes who keep them in power.
  Think about it: if the US dollar becomes worthless, who hurts more, the people already barely getting by, or the people with millions of dollars at stake?
  The Republicans are bluffing, and always have been. Call their fucking bluff and see if they have the eggs to piss off their lords and masters. >
  
  They have played this game of chicken with Democrats enough to know that they never call. >
  
  What do you mean? Their bluff was called this past summer and the Republicans lost. >
  
  
  The debt ceiling fight of 2011 was different. The Obama administration did negotiate with House Republicans, resulting in the Budget Control Act of 2011. When the debt ceiling had to be raised again in 2013, Obama returned to negotiations. During this standoff, the government was partially closed down. Here again, Republicans took the brunt of the blame.
  
  During that time Biden advocated not negotiating with the GOP and was pissed that Obama didn't let them take the blame like Clinton did.  It will be interesting to see how it unfolds now that Biden is the President rather than an advisor. >
  
  He isn’t going to negotiate. He was 100% right - empowering the GOP to think this is a viable tactic was a huge mistake. >
  
  It's amazed me since taking psychology 101 in jc decades ago how few people in this country understand the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement. Everyone from ceos and senior leaders in the private sector, government officials, politicians, to parents and teachers! How do people go through life without even the most basic understanding of what makes them and others tick? It's confounding, really. >
  
  The entire concept of regularly having to re-legislate loans that were taken out decades ago is like someone asking the bank to make them re-qualify monthly for the mortgage they have never missed a payment on - voluntarily. 
  Hey America, smarten up! >
  
  Just like all of their scams, of course. >
  
  All they have, all they ARE, are two scams in a trenchcoat. >
  
  Republicans are only fiscally conservative when Democrats have control >
  
  She’s got the beadiest little fucking eyes >
  
  They look fucking ugly as fuck >
  
  These two are fucking, right? 
  I can’t be the only one thinking this. >
  
  God journalists love mimicking that one children’s book for negative headlines. It was amusing once. >
  
  I agree with your point; it's like putting -gate after every scandal or issue. >
  
  Marjorie Taylor Green has threatened to say nasty things about Kevin if he doesn't do what she wants, which puts him in a difficult position. >
  
  Awww! Look at that pic! Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. >
  
  I wonder why editors and journalists love this headline so much. I see it every couple of weeks. So sick of seeing it used for every topic. Try harder media... >
  
  Reddit Users Epically Slam Media for Overusing Dumb Headline Tropes >
  
  Is the debt ceiling stupid?  Yes.  Should we borrow and take on more debt?  Probably not.  When Republicans refuse to raise revenue, i.e. taxes, then you already put yourself in a hard place.  Raise the taxes on the wealthy, which is easier said than done.  They can't avoid taxes if they are a US citizen.  They complain about paying high taxes and pouring more money into elections.  They already do that.  They aren't going to leave the country and renounce their citizenship. >
  
  Or Biden can announce today he is ordering the trillion dollar coin and erases any leverage the Republicans have at least with respect to this issue. The point here is to call their bluff. >
  
  Can you expand on this.  First I’ve heard of a Trillion dollar coin. >
  
  It's one of a variety of extreme ways people have come up with to avoid default if Republicans refuse to pay the bills.  There's a law giving the ability to mint coins without additional congressional approval (unlike paper money, it's intended for commemorative coins, but no such restriction is in the bill).  So mint a trillion dollar coin and deposit it with the fed.  No congress needed and we avoid default.
  There are other related approaches.  Because the debt ceiling only applies to the face value of any debt, not unpaid interest accrued on it and that Treasury has full autonomy in how they structure debt, there are also loopholes there.  For example, sell a one year $100 bond with > 100% interest for $200.  For purposes of the debt ceiling, we added $100 to the debt, but the Treasury received $200.  Can obviously structure those for longer durations or higher multiples as needed, just a bit of math to get equivalent interest rates.
  There's also an argument that the debt ceiling is simply unconstitutional, so Treasury/Biden should ignore it.
  All of these plans are on somewhat shaky ground in that they've never been tested in court.  But trying one or several also seems better than default if it comes to that. >
  
  Thank you for the breakdown. >
  
  We need to talk about how headlines should stop saying "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad." This one weird trick will slam that trite bullshit, and you won't believe what you probably missed about what happens next that will restore your faith in clapping back.