A question of ability: Can Biden, by EO, suspend the debt ceiling rules? Related question: Should he

[Stinky The Clown]

I heard this talked about briefly on TV today.

I think he should go for it and tell McConnell to eat shit.

[vsrazdem]

1. I doubt it. Only congress has power of the purse, not the executive branch.

[lagomorph777]

2. Agreed. But we should be able to do this in Congress.

I don't think even Manchin/Sinema would actually let us default on the debt.

[vsrazdem]

6. Its not the Dems we have to worry about. The republicans are going to shut it down.

[lagomorph777]

7. Not if we don't let them.

We can use reconciliation or kill the damned filibuster.

[Celerity]

10. Democrats will not raise debt limit in $3.5 trillion bill -Pelosi

https://www.reuters.com/business/democrats-will-not-raise-debt-limit-35-trillion-bill-pelosi-2021-09-08/

And, just now

U.S. House approves bill to suspend debt limit, fund government

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-tuesday-fund-govt-through-dec-3-raise-debt-limit-2021-09-21/


The Rethugs will filibuster it.

They want a government shutdown. The CBO estimates a significant duration shutdown will cost 6 million jobs lost, 9% unemployment rate, and multiple endogenous shocks to the equity and bond markets.

They are banking on it shredding Biden's approval numbers, even though they are the ones actually causing it.

[Steelrolled]

3. Why does anyone pay attention to the debt ceiling fights we get every few years?

Here a little secret I've learned - it always gets settled in the end.

[Demsrule86]

9. The Repubicans are off the rails...there will come a day when we will default if this continues...

and all hell will break loose.

[Celerity]

11. +1

[Steelrolled]

12. Here is how I view it

What Is a Breath-Holding Spell?
A breath holding spell is when a child holds their breath, usually after being angry, frustrated, startled, or in pain. Sometimes the breath holding leads to the child passing out.

It can be frightening to watch a breath-holding spell, but they aren’t harmful and usually last less than a minute. Kids outgrow the spells without any treatment.

[sarisataka]

4. No

An EO allows a President to move some budgeted fund from certain areas to other priorities, it does not allow him to unilaterally redo the budget or raise the debt ceiling.

[unblock]

5. unchartered waters, so not entirely clear. but i have read a few thoughts on the matter

first, in terms of directly having the government borrow more, this is certainly problematic.

that said, it's also problematic to not pay debts or to not pay for things that congress already authorized. one could argue that the executive branch was put in an impossible position, forced to break one thing or another, either raise enough debt to pay the bills or not pay the bills. either would be a violation of duly enacted law.

this is why the whole debt ceiling thing is stupid as hell. it's not a cap on spending, it's a cap on paying for the spending that congress authorized, for things the government already bought. really, how stupid is that. it's like saying we're going to get control of our budget by simply refusing to pay the mortgage. what could go wrong.


the alternative, which seems to be on much stronger legal ground, is to have the treasury mint a trillion dollar coin and use that to give the government enough to pay its bills without having to borrow month.

i think the only reason no one has done this is the optics. and again, the optics are bad only because everyone is so stupid about the whole debt ceiling concept.

[Demsrule86]

8. Yes, he should suspend it or do the coin thing.