Live Chat w/ Ken Baer

With Jack Lew’s confirmation hearings for Treasury Secretary coming up soon, this afternoon at 4 PM we’re holding a Live Chat at TPMPrime with Ken Baer, Lew’s former colleague at OMB. Questions about Jack Lew? Questions about the White House budgeting process or working in the Obama White House? Get your questions in now.

No Ace In The Hole

The weekend’s most important development wasn’t that the Treasury Department deep-sixed the platinum coin per se, but that the White House more-or-less declared it won’t resort to any debt limit work around if Republicans refuse to increase it before borrowing authority lapses.

Between the official statement, a long conversation with a senior White House official, and President Obama’s press conference this morning, I take this to be more than just an attempt to clarify the stakes and dial up the pressure on Republicans to raise the debt limit drama free. There really is no “Plan B” if we breach the debt limit, other than that the government will shirk 40 percent of its obligations and Republicans will feel enormous pressure to raise it before the economic fallout becomes too catastrophic.

But as troubling as it is to take a flier on House Republicans’ willingness and ability to raise the debt limit before the deadline, platinum coin advocates and advocates of other debt limit workarounds should recognize that this is how the standoff would have had to unfold even if there were a Plan B.

“We Are Not a Deadbeat Nation”

Obama: “We are not a deadbeat nation.”

Watch Obama Presser Live

President Obama’s White House news conference about to begin. Watch.

The Bind They’re In

This video from this morning’s Chris Jansing show gives a pretty good sense of where the current debate is on the debt ceiling. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) basically saying the GOP is looking at the most thoughtful, deliberate ways of defaulting on the national debt or shutting down the federal government.

Labor’s Big Shift On Immigration Reform

Labor unions are a major advocate for the current immigration reform efforts but, as Benjy Sarlin reports, it was not always that way.

Monday Facepalm

It’s increasingly looking like a government shutdown is the GOP’s fallback position on the debt ceiling fight. If a government default is too risky politically and economically, then a government shutdown still get Republicans a genuine primal scream moment, with arguably less severe consequences to the economy. As for the political consequences of a shutdown, Republicans seem more focused on the internal party politics involved than the larger body politic. Here’s how one adviser put it to Politico:

House Speaker John Boehner “may need a shutdown just to get it out of their system,” said a top GOP leadership adviser. “We might need to do that for member-management purposes – so they have an endgame and can show their constituents they’re fighting.”

Official Statement

You’ve likely seen the news that Internet activist and programmer Aaron Swartz committed suicide last night. His family has released the following statement. After the jump …

Gun Dude: Sorry! Can I Have My Gun Back?

Okay, it looks like we’re full circle now.

James Yeager, the CEO of Tactical Response, has a new video up. The new line: Hey, I’m really sorry about threatening to kill people. I didn’t mean it. Can I please have my gun carry permit back?

He doesn’t actually ask for his permit to be un-suspended. But it sounds like his lawyer put the fear of God into him. Actually, if you watch closely, by the end of the video they both hedge a teeny teeny bit about whether the time for violence might come in the future.

Video after the jump …

No Platinum Coin (Told You So)

Some people thought the White House was suggesting they might … might be willing to pursue the Platinum Coin option to resolve a debt default crisis. I didn’t think so. And I think I was right. Today the Treasury released a statement saying that the Treasury and thus the administration and thus President Obama do not believe that the relevant statute “can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit.”

Okay This Is Awesome

The White House has officially responded to the ‘We the People’ petition to commit the US to building a Death Star. Best line: “Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?” Next best: “The Administration does not support blowing up planets,” which may represent a slight shift from the position of the previous administration.

Full response after the jump …

Carefully Orchestrated

This letter is definitely the most orchestrated attempt by Democratic leaders to convince President Obama to unilaterally avoid a debt limit breach … somehow.

But we’ve known they feel this way for a while now. So the really interesting question to me is whether the White House helped orchestrate this particular public demonstration. Whether it was an exercise in providing cover or of entrapment.