White House Doesn’t Rule Out Minting Trillion Dollar Coin

White House Won't Rule Out $1 Trillion Coin (Politico)

The White House on Wednesday didn't outright deny the possibility of minting a $1 trillion coin, an idea that's been floated as a way for the Obama administration to pay its debts if Congress were to fail to raise the debt ceiling in the coming weeks.

"There is no plan B, there is no backup plan. There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States," White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his daily briefing.

But when asked whether the administration would rule out minting a coin, Carney didn't utright deny the option. "You can speculate a lot of things, [but] nothing needs to come to these speculative notions" so long as Congress does its job, he said.

And the White House expects Congress to follow through, Carney said. "The option here is for Congress to do its job and pay its bills, bills that have already been racked up."

Later on in his briefing, Carney was pushed again to rule out the option of minting the coin. He referred the question to the Treasury Department and again repeated that the president does not see a back-up plan for raising the debt ceiling.