There’s growing concern that Congress might not be able to reach a deal to lift the debt ceiling. But there’s a creative, yet unlikely work-around: the trillion dollar coin.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
All right. There is one wild idea for dealing with the nation’s debt ceiling crisis, if it becomes a crisis. It’s known as the trillion dollar coin. NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben says this notion is not new.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: The idea leans on a law from the ’90s that allows the Treasury to mint commemorative platinum coins of any denomination they want.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
OK, so why not just mint a trillion dollar coin and use it to pay a trillion dollars’ worth of debt?
INSKEEP: This idea sounds like a joke. In fact, it has been. The TV series “The Simpsons” once had an episode that played on a similar concept.
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