Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen is urging low information liberals in his kingdom to sign a petition calling for the “Trillion Dollar Coin.”

He sent this missive out to friends,

“We can’t allow the dangerous, extremist Republicans in Congress to hold our country hostage. Sign this petition to support a legal pathway around the debt ceiling ridiculousness…”

Yes, the apparent Paul Krugman acolyte urges the signing of another one of those White House petitions because he wants to stick it to those, “…dangerous, extremist Republicans in Congress” who don’t want the US to go into debt free fall. 

Even Krugman calls the idea ‘silly and benign’ but thinks it will add to the debt ceiling drama,

Enter the platinum coin. There’s a legal loophole allowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins in any denomination the secretary chooses. …[B]y minting a $1 trillion coin, then depositing it at the Fed, the Treasury could acquire enough cash to sidestep the debt ceiling — while doing no economic harm at all. 

Heritage Foundation

The back story is that Democrats like Cogen think there should be no limits on spending while those “dangerous, extremists” you know, like me, who think we should cut spending and limit our obligations. 

By separating tax ‘reform’ (sticking it to the rich) from the spending cuts, both Democrats and Republicans have set up another pitched battle over the debt ceiling. This drama is expected to unfold within the next 60 days.

The unserious among us such as Cogen support a petition that even his muse Paul Krugman calls, “silly but benign.” If it’s benign, Jeff, why waste peoples’ time? Because he’s an ideological extremist, that’s why.

Remember: that’s the way he runs the county: ideology come first.