NRCC targets Democrats for trillion-dollar-coin solution to debt

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting seven Democrats on spending, using Rep. Jerrold Nadler's (N.Y.) comments about paying off the national debt with trillion-dollar coins as an example of Democrats' "spending problem."

“It’s time for John Barrow [Ga.] to choose,” said NRCC communications director Andrea Bozek in a release that goes out to reporters in Barrow's district. “Will he sign our petition and admit that spending is the problem, or will he continue to stand with President Obama and Nancy Pelosi in believing that the only answer to our nation’s problems is to raise taxes and create trillion-dollar coins?”

Bozek's statement riffs off of Nadler's suggestion that the Federal Reserve mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin, which would then be deposited in the Treasury, essentially paying off the nation's debt.

The statement includes a petition supporters can sign to "tell Obama: Spending is the problem!"

Republicans have slammed Obama for what they've deemed a "spending problem" after the deal cut to avoid the looming tax increases and budget cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" included a starkly uneven cuts-to-revenue ratio; that is, it raised far more money by raising taxes than it cut from the debt by cutting spending.

The issue is expected to come up again when Congress fights its next battle, over raising the debt ceiling. Prominent Republicans have said that revenues from tax reform should be off the table going forward, but Democrats indicated they won't accede to that requirement, hoping for as much as $1 trillion in new revenues to balance cuts to spending.

The release was also sent to the districts of Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Tim Walz (Minn.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) and Nick Rahall (W.Va.).

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