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. Read More