Obama Could Negotiate to Eliminate the Debt Ceiling

Norm Ornstein: “There is one area where Obama could and should be willing to negotiate with Republicans–to take the default option, the full faith and credit of the United States, off the table permanently. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell provided the vehicle to do this in the eleventh-hour resolution of the debt ceiling crisis in 2011. The ‘McConnell Rule,’ as it was called, allowed the president unilaterally to extend the debt limit, while also providing for a congressional resolution of disapproval. If both houses of Congress disapproved of the president’s action, the resolution would be sent to the president. He could veto it–but it would take two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override his veto.”

“Institutionalizing the McConnell Rule would be valuable enough that it should extract some real concessions from the president to achieve it.”