Biden Could Issue ‘Trillion-Dollar Coin’ to Avoid Making a Deal With Republicans
There is growing concern that the United States will default on its loans and run out of money in the coming weeks, and one unlikely solution is being floated in the financial world. If the government desperately needed…
There is growing concern that the United States will default on its loans and run out of money in the coming weeks, and one unlikely solution is being floated in the financial world.
If the government desperately needed funding while cutting around Congress, President Joe Biden could technically issue a $1 trillion commemorative coin and give it to the Federal Reserve, CNN Business reported.
The idea would be considered an overreach of power, and the White House is denying any talks of issuing such a coin.
“There is only one viable option to deal with the debt limit: Congress needs to increase or suspend it, as it has done approximately 80 times, including three times during the last Administration,” White House spokesperson Mike Gwin told Politico.
Former President Barack Obama admitted to discussing a coin with his treasury secretary during a 2017 interview with Pod Save America.
“We were having these conversations with Jack Lew and others about what options in fact were available, because it had never happened before,” Obama said, according to CNN.
“There were all kinds of wacky ideas about how potentially you could have this massive coin … This theory that I had the authority to just issue this massive trillion dollar coin, a trillion dollar commemorative coin, and then on that basis we could pay off US Treasuries.”
However, experts have warned that resorting to using the trillion-dollar coin could collapse the U.S. dollar. “It is so glitzy and gimmicky, it’s the worst thing you could do,” Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said.