Thread by @rohangrey

"We have no choice but to default....except of course all the choices we just don't want to consider"

For shame.

https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1437914890317058048

Obviously the debt ceiling is stupid and should be abandoned. But as so many centrists and moderates love to point out in other contexts, sometimes political realities prevent the best-possible outcome so you have to consider what you *can* do with the power you have.

And in this instance, what is very clear is that threatening a government default or shutdown if the debt ceiling is not suspended or increased in time is *not* the only choice available to the Biden administration, it's just the only one they want to acknowledge and entertain.

Of course, if that then causes a shutdown or default, it will be very easy to blame the Republicans for their intransigence, and that will be true at some level. But sensible people have long given up expecting Republicans to act sensibly, the real Q is how to deal w that reality

In this context, if the Biden administration wants to play roulette with the American economy and threaten default/shutdown if their preferred political outcome isn't achieved by ignoring other options on the table, that's ultimately on them too. No hiding behind impossibility.

Here's an honest way to play the political game they want to play without lying about the legal options available to avoid the cataclysmic outcome: "we think the Republicans should do the right thing and raise/suspend the ceiling. If they dont we wont let the economy crash."

It's that simple. And it has the benefit of being both true and sincere. Instead we get this 11-dimensional chess, grounded in the idea that the coin is just too gimmicky and unserious (compared to, you know, a self-imposed shutdown/default). It's fundamentally undemocratic.

The President & Tsy Sec do not have the constitutional authority or political mandate to ignore legally viable financing mechanisms and instead choose to default on Congressionally-approved spending obligations. Its its own form of power grab, even as they condemn R's for theirs.

Anyway, I've made this argument before and there's not much more to say, other than this constant pretense that we should all just go along with Dems playing dangerous brinksmanship games just b/c the Republicans are bad is incredibly corrosive and they should stop doing it.