ANALYSIS: To Solve A Problem Like The Debt Ceiling?

Jan. 10, 2013 -- Trillion dollar coins? Invoke the 14th Amendment? Impose the "Boehner Rule"? Just raise it?Seems like everyone's got an idea about what to do about the impending debt ceiling crisis, but we're a long way from a solution.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reported that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney flatly ruled out negotiations with Congress over raising the ceiling, telling reporters yesterday, "There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan. There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States."

Karl notes that some have suggested President Obama could invoke the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states, "the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned" and ignore the debt ceiling altogether.

But Carney demurred: "We just don't believe that it provides the authority that some believe it does," he said.

And in his Wall Street Journal column this morning, Republican strategist Karl Rove argued that Republicans should stick with the so-called "Boehner Rule," which as Rove notes, "requires matching any debt increase dollar for dollar with spending cuts."

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"House Republicans must pass a measure pairing specific spending cuts with a debt-ceiling increase that will have few, if any, Democratic votes. It would therefore be tactically wise for Republicans to draw many of these cuts from the recommendations of Mr. Obama's own National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (aka Simpson-Bowles).

It would be even better if much of the savings were achieved by moderating future spending increases or freezing outlays, rather than reducing them from today's levels."Meanwhile, back at the White House, Carney did not rule out minting trillion dollars coins if Congress fails to act, saying "you could speculate about a lot of things."

"Nothing needs to come to these kinds of ... speculative notions about how to deal with a problem that is easily resolved by Congress doing its job, very simply," he said.