I have been in favor of minting the trillion dollar coin. However, President Obama's press conference helped elucidate why that might not ultimately be the best choice.
below the squiggle
Cheney reportedly said that the way that you win a game of chicken when both you in your car and the other person in their car are careening towards each other is to tear off the steering column / steering wheel and show it to the other person. At that point, the other person realizes that they are the only person with the ability to avoid the crash.
Note: it is not yet tested on irrational actors.
So, when the President eliminated the gimmick trillion dollar coin and the 14th Amendment, then he pulled the steering column/steering wheel out and in the press conference he showed it to the GOP.
We don't want to constantly be minting out trillion dollar coins. What would we do next time ? And the time after that ? Do we really want that as a precedent? Now, Congress has the responsiblity to act and the President is not going to let them get off the hook.
They can pick their poison: either pass a clean debt ceiling bill or send the country into default. The House Republicans will not do the former and the country will punish the national republican brand if they do the latter. The only hope for them to preserve their national brand is if Boehner brings a clean debt ceiling bill to the floor and passes it with mostly Democratic votes. And eventually he will do it. It is simply a matter of time. The pressure upon him to do so by the money interests / Wall Street and establishment republicans will be too great. There are 24 or so Republicans who will vote for a clean debt ceiling bill.
Any bill that had majority republican support could not pass the Senate. And would enable more hostage taking.
Transcript Editors
So while I’m willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they’ve already racked up.
If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America’s bills on time, Social Security checks and veterans’ benefits will be delayed. We might not be able to pay our troops, or honor our contracts with small business owners. Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, specialists who track down loose nuclear material wouldn’t get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is, in fact, a safe bet. Markets could go haywire. Interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money -- every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan, every small business owner who wants to grow and hire. It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession, and ironically, would probably increase our deficit.
So to even entertain the idea of this happening -- of the United States of America not paying its bills -- is irresponsible. It’s absurd. As the Speaker said two years ago, it would be -- and I'm quoting Speaker Boehner now -- “a financial disaster, not only for us, but for the worldwide economy.”
So we've got to pay our bills. And Republicans in Congress have two choices here: They can act responsibly, and pay America’s bills; or they can act irresponsibly, and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The financial well-being of the American people is not leverage to be used. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.
And they better choose quickly, because time is running short. The last time Republicans in Congress even flirted with this idea, our AAA credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history; our businesses created the fewest jobs of any month in nearly the past three years; and, ironically, the whole fiasco actually added to the deficit
President Obama did a great job of answering questions about this matter too. He owned major private republican.