Why Biden should hang touch on debt issue

 Robert B. Hubbell -Media outlets continue to discuss the impending crisis as though the opposing sides occupy equivalent moral and political vantages. They do not. Using the debt limit as a tool to extract partisan concessions is irresponsible and reckless. So, too, is giving in to the GOP ransom demands. If Republicans are rewarded for holding the debt ceiling hostage, the US will see repeated crises in March 2024 and annually thereafter. The way to avoid annual crises is to call the GOP’s bluff now. If they insist on forcing a global financial crisis, that result will be on them.

But let’s keep in mind that if the US runs out of cash to pay current obligations, Biden will be forced to decide which US debts to pay. Because the President has no constitutional or statutory ability to “pick and choose” which debts to pay, he can make an argument that he should pay all of them by ordering the Treasury to issue new debt despite the debt limit. That solution was suggested more than a year ago by Garrett Epps and was viewed as a fringe idea. It has gained legitimacy since that time and may be a remedy of last resort.