NRSC blasts Democratic senators for 'magic coin proposal'

By Alexandra Jaffe - 01/11/13 06:22 PM ET

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is working to make one proposal for raising the debt ceiling — a $1 trillion platinum coin — into a problem for Senate Democrats.

The NRSC on Friday expanded an effort launched by its House counterpart to frame the proposal as evidence of Democrats' lack of "fiscal discipline."

In a statement sent to reporters and grassroots organizers in the states of 11 Senate Democrats, the NRSC lambasts what it calls the "trillion-dollar magic coin proposal," an idea floated by some Democrats to mint a platinum coin in the amount of $1 trillion and deposit it in the Federal Reserve, effectively canceling some of the national debt.

NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh asks in the email sent out to people in Louisiana whether Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) would support the coin.

“Over the last four years, Senator Landrieu has stood side-by-side with President Obama and voted in lockstep for all of his big government programs that are bankrupting our country,” he said. “So Louisianans deserve to know exactly where their senior Senator stands today — does Landrieu believe that minting magic coins is the answer to solving our country’s fiscal problems or will she finally acknowledge that reckless Washington spending is the real issue?”

The email follows a letter sent by Senate Democrats to President Obama urging him to "take any lawful steps" to raise the debt ceiling "without Congressional approval" if Republicans indicate they are willing to let the government default during the upcoming debt ceiling fight.

That letter was signed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Democratic Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.).

But the NRSC's email did not go to any of those senators' states; instead it was sent to 11 Democrats who Republicans see as vulnerable in 2014: Sens. Tim Johnson (S.D.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mark Udall (Colo.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Al Franken (Minn.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Landrieu.

The National Republican Congressional Committee issued a number of attacks over the past week in the districts of Democrats they think are vulnerable, targeting them on Democrats' "spending problem" and using the coin proposal as evidence.