The unhyperbolic 'Enemy Within'

It's Klein over Krugman by a nose. The Obama administration has cross-filed the gimmickry of the platinum coin idea under G for "grotesque," along with all other flanking maneuvers against a debt-ceiling collapse; and now the White House says simply that "Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default."

In short, it'll be business as usual or the apocalypse, because, observes Klein:

There was also the simple fact that [a Fed-deposited, $1-trillion-dollar trinket] would, indeed, represent an admission that the government’s executive and legislative branches could no longer be trusted to come together and effectively manage the country’s finances.

Which is profoundly true, as well as profoundly paradoxical. For President Obama's unequivocal non-negotiating stance itself represents an admission that the government's executive and legislative branches can no longer be trusted to come together and effectively manage the country's finances. United States presidents have historically refused to negotiate with warring enemies of the state--say, FDR's "unconditional surrender" demand of the Axis Powers, or Lincoln's repulsion of a "deal" with the treasonous South--but I cannot recollect a single instance of a U.S. president declaring that under no circumstances would the executive branch "come together" with Congress to "effectively manage" a global-calamity-averting, fiscal reprieve.

Which gives you some calibrated, comparative idea of just how singularly reckless and openly belligerent this domestic, anti-American threat of a Republican-infested Congress has become.

Comments

[Peter G]

How this will play out will be as rvetng as any political confrontation that I can remember. Fortunately there is the emergency option should reason not suddenly afflict the Republican house. In case of emergency, mint coin. Can't do that, of course, until those Republicans have thoroughly blotted their copybook and given the president a prime opportunity to look presidential while dealing with a self-inflicted Hurricane Sandy.

[susan Zoon]

The coin was an impeachment trap.
The word treason comes to mind when called upon to describe the behavior of this Congress.

[Janicket]

Agreed, Susan. Not to mention that Obama would have been mercilessly mocked and ridiculed in the late-night comics' monologues and by the public at large for such a ludicrous stunt -- and yes, that's how The Coin would have been presented by the media -- which would have wrecked the "only adult in the room" persona he's built so carefully and strategically over the last four years, gutting his ability to get anything else on his long and difficult agenda accomplished.

[BobH]

Indict and arrest the House of Rep. recalcitrants for sedition in time of war. Remove them from the House. They're Fifth Columnists (new style). After all, communists haven't been allowed to sit in the House on the basis they seek the overthrow of the government, so why should anarchists?

[Roberta in MN]

Our President is a GD Constitutional Law Professor and Lawyer, you think he doesn't know what he can and cannot do? EMOPROG's get a life and some reading on your own. Our President will do what is right for out country not what is right for the RWNJ or wacko Liberal if you can call them that.

[Peter G]

Not quite sure BobH that the US is ready for another civil war just yet. And certainly not in Awards Season for pity's sake.

[BobH]

Peter G, you may be right, as perhaps the Smith Act of 1940 is a little too blunt an instrument. Besides it has only been used against lefties. Someone earlier suggested a taint of treason, so maybe a prosecution or two of the most extreme under the Patriot Act? The rest might get the message and come back to reality. The best scenario is for PBO to simply tell the Treasury to continue to "service the debt" and ignore the debt limit stricture. An Act of Nullification that ought to appeal in concept (if not in practice) to those on the Right.