Joe Biden's Trillion-Dollar Coin (Script & Sources)

Good morning, bad news, we are less than one month away from the United States defaulting on 28.5 trillion dollars of debt, which will immediately crash the economy, collapse the US dollar, and nearly double the unemployment rate while wiping out the stock market.

And if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, there’s only one thing that can save us: President Joe Biden can issue a single commemorative coin made of platinum, worth one trillion dollars that the Treasury would use to pay our debt. That’s not a joke, a commemorative platinum trillion dollar coin is a 100% real, legal, and constitutional option.

Here’s the situation: Congress has the sole legal authority to spend money, and they do that by passing bills that are paid for with debt issued by the Treasury. And that debt also has to be authorized by Congress. Which is a procedural step to ensure that only Congress can control the nation’s money. It’s exactly equivalent to writing a check, and then signing the check you just wrote. But three times so far in US history, when it comes time to sign that check, Congress uses it as an outlandishly dangerous bargaining tool. The situation today is that Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling past 28.5 trillion dollars, even though they’ve approved bills on spending more than 28.5 trillion. And if they don’t, on October 18th, 2021, we’ll run out of money.

All of this is happening because in 1995, Republicans figured out that they could hold the economy hostage to force Democrats to agree to huge spending cuts on social programs and

huge tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy at the risk of crashing the entire global economy. Mitch McConnell, who has orchestrated this scenario, calls it “a hostage that’s worth ransoming”. And the problem is that, like strapping yourself with dynamite, is unlikely as the threat is, the risk that they might actually do it, is equally stupid and terrifying. Which is why the solution of minting a commemorative platinum trillion dollar coin is also an extremely stupid procedural loophole, that also happens to be totally legal.

Here’s how it works: The law that regulates how we’re allowed to create physical currency, which is 31 U.S. Code section 5112, sets standards for the size and dimensions of coins, and the materials that can be used for them It also includes a fun little section that allows for commemorative coins. Most commemorative coins don’t circulate - there isn’t any functional or practical use for them. We literally just minted a Basketball Hall of Fame half dollar and it’s actually worth 50 cents. Silver coins can be worth up to one dollar, gold coins can be worth up to $50, and there’s even a provision for a $25 coin made of palladium. But then out of nowhere, at the very bottom of subsection (k), it says “The [Treasury] Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins… with denominations in the Secretary’s discretion,” It’s the only coin, whose value is decided on by the Treasury Secretary. Who right now, is economist Janet Yellen.

It’s a dumb loophole, but there’s literally no legal action to stop Joe Biden from authorizing Janet Yellen to issue a commemorative platinum coin worth one trillion dollars, which is legal tender, and can be deposited into the Treasury, and thereby singlehandedly raise the debt ceiling by a trillion dollars. And because that money isn’t actually in circulation, it wouldn’t have any negative economic impact, like inflation or destabilization. 

No other country has a debt ceiling problem because it’s a made up problem. It’s not really about Congress refusing to fund their own spending, or about Biden issuing a trillion dollar coin. It’s about Republicans in Congress playing chicken with the idea that half of our legislative body doesn’t care about the rules that hold our economy together, and every time they play this game, it hurts the economy, costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and makes us weaker as an economic power. But it also works, because Democrats literally always play by the rules.

It’s the scene from Air Bud with Republicans saying “there’s no rule that a dog can’t play basketball”, and Democrats responding by giving them tax cuts and defunding school lunches.

They’re not going to mint a trillion dollar coin, but they can and they should.