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Oh fun, I'm literally one paragraph in to the analysis in Trump v. US and my blood is already boiling
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Guys you wanna... you wanna read that one back again a couple of times?
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The analogy to the executive privilege cases is really weird?? Like, they're obviously separate matters...
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This is the part that really caught me off guard in the opinion. Folks rightly focus on, well, the top-line. But this is just a complete misunderstanding of executive privilege or where it comes from, and is patently, grossly invented for one man and for one case
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Everybody makes jokes about ordering drone strikes on Mar-a-Lago, etc. which is obviously insane. But Biden should be using the ruling to "fire a shot across the bow" on some policy matters, if only to highlight the extent of SCOTUS' partisan corruption.
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I think it would be hilarious if he had the 6 conservative SCOTUS justices’ catalytic converters stolen, refined, and minted into a coin that erased a significant fraction of the national debt.
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Cut the coin back into six pieces and return the scrap to them in gratitude for their role in freeing up Congress to spend more freely.
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(Catalytic converters not withstanding, I've long said POTUS should just mint the coin to end the debt ceiling)
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It doesn’t work—part of the problem with a creative solution is that the legal uncertainty itself would have calamitous effects, even if you’re ultimately vindicated. But don’t put anything past this court either
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Not worse calamitous effects than just hitting default though I agree it makes sense not to do it until you're really up against it
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So my longer argument is that its value as an idea (versus, say, a 14A claim to blow past the limit) is precisely that it sidesteps the calamitous uncertainty of going past the debt ceiling by any other means
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I think you can even make a pretty non-trivial argument he should do it /outside/ of a debt-ceiling fight (but as a practical matter, they never would)
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so i'm not super brushed up on my economics, but wouldn't minting a 10tn coin to pay off U.S. debt cause apocalyptic levels of inflation? /gen
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Nope. Oddly enough, you could mint a $100 quadrillion coin, hell, a $100 quadrillion coin every single day, and it would have *zero* effect on inflation.
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Even if you gave one to everyone it would have no effect because the value is so far above everything else it would be effectively unspendable.
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Can think about it like this if you want to: If Congress passed a law saying everyone gets a $1m check in the post, but also that the check is uncashable, then everyone is technically a millionaire now, but because nobody can spend it, it's effectively just mailing everyone a bit of paper
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I'm sure news about it would provide great cover for jacking up prices.
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Actually, no Krugman I believe has written about this. The key is it doesn't actually create new spending
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Ohhhhh, because it's going to expenses the goverment was going to incur already anyway?
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No; because it's not new money entering the economy
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This, except unironically. You know if Trump gets in office he’s going to print money and give it to himself. Or he’s going to ignore the 1974 Impoundment law and just take money from blue states or blue members of Congress or Ukraine or... Get the SC to declare this illegal now.
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Right. The reason everyone (except, for some reason, the SCOTUS majority) understands Biden can't ST6/drone strike his opponent is because everyone understands it's (a) not authorized (b) not official (c) violates the basic social contract in multiple directions, so would be a gross abuse of office.
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Which makes the decision all the less defensible. The hypothetical was raised at SCOTUS OA, at OA at DDC, and in the dissent, and at every stage Trump's counsel and, eventually, the majority just didn't address it, even though it has a very straightforward answer
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it's not like it's some hyperventilating op-ed or a blogpost that brought it up. It was raised directly.
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I haven't--maybe I won't--put in writing all the gaming I've been doing assuming Biden drops out of the race but not the presidency and then resigns after Harris certifies her own election on January 6 to be pardoned.
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c. That's it. a and b are debatable. One can be sure that if a Republican president ordered it, it'd be successfully argued that the president is authorized and it is official. Under Article II. Biden should do something milder if these are considered too radical. He should fire Louis DeJoy.
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people (including the scotus majority) can argue what they like, but it's not authorized (its outside of the scope of the broadly understood set of presidential duties) and not official (it is plainly in pursuit of the president's personal ambitions, and not by reference to the national interest)
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The problem with that is it only protects Biden from criminal cases. So he has to actually do something criminal. It's hard to see any of his policy ends that are stuck now unless he commits an illegal act.
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One of the reasons they had the confidence to make this ruling is because Biden hadn't telegraphed any terrifying prospective crimes against conservative interests that he might be interested in using immunity for. They could relax and focus on supporting Trump.
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Like, it's a shocking act of disrespect against Biden that they granted the President dictatorial powers while an *opposing* politician holds the office. They just weren't scared of him.