We have heard it before. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann summed up the Republicans' position on the debt ceiling in 2011, when she famously stated that Congress would not give President Barack Obama "a blank check for spending," her term for raising the debt ceiling.

Now once again, our nation stands perilously close to reaching the debt ceiling, the statutory limit on how much debt the United States government may hold at any one time. By taking the debt ceiling hostage, House Republicans threaten to cause the United States to default on its debt. Such a scenario is frightening, having the ability to send global financial markets into unmitigated disaster. Obama is in the right to demand Congress raise the debt ceiling without preconditions.

The debt ceiling was created in 1917, not-as many put it-to serve as a roadblock to further spending, but to ease the job of the Treasury Secretary in issuing bonds to service the nation's deficit. The debt ceiling, always a tool of bonds and not of spending caps, has been raised countless times, including 76 such instances just since the 1960s. Why now, then, is the Congress so recalcitrant upon using this tool of brinkmanship as leverage for its extreme goals?

Enter the Tea Party. In 2010, when House Republicans were voted back into power, many were catapulted by extreme zealots from the Tea Party, who had often never held political office before and detested the moderate Republican establishment. In 2011, and now again in 2013, they see the debt ceiling as a tool for a partisan fight-like the fiscal cliff-and not as the dangerous nuclear button it is.

The 2011 debt ceiling crisis saw Republicans demand (and receive) massive spending cuts in exchange for their willingness to not put the United States into default and plunge the global economy into a cataclysm. In the end, the political brinkmanship caused Standard & Poor's to downgrade the United States' credit rating.

A refusal to raise the debt ceiling would mean the United States might not be able to pay its bills. Raising the debt ceiling does not, as Michele Bachmann might suggest, give the President a blank check to continue spending unfettered. All debt which would be borrowed against the new debt ceiling, or any other, would have to be separately approved by Congress. The only reason the current debt ceiling, set at $16.4 trillion dollars, will be reached soon is because of spending bills and appropriations passed by Congress and signed by Obama.

If Congress is truly serious about curbing spending, then playing with the idea of an American default is not the way to go about it. Instead, they should offer actual solutions to our finances by proposing leaner budgets.

President Obama decided to play into the hands of the House Republicans in 2011, and negotiated with them over a debt ceiling raise. The deal that was reached brought heavy condemnation, both from the right and the left. This time around, Obama has made clear his position: the House Republicans have blackmailed the administration with the debt ceiling, and he will not negotiate with them. Obama has repeated himself many times, insisting that no preconditions be attached to a vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Such a position is not only understood, it is needed. Whether it has been President George Bush and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich or President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Tip O'Neil, divided governments have raised the debt ceiling dozens of times without preconditions. It is a dangerous precedent to set that it is okay for a small group of legislators to demand their side be addressed by attaching it inseparably to sensitive legislation. It is my belief that House Speaker John Boehner will eventually lead a sensible minority of his party to increase the debt ceiling without preconditions, as Conservative business leaders, such as the Koch brothers, have been pressing for. If this is not the case, Obama has a number of other options.

A little-known law states that the Secretary of the Treasury maintains unlimited authority to mint platinum coins. While the law was obviously meant for collectors' bullion coins, most legal experts agree it could be used as a lifesaver in the debt ceiling fight. Under this scenario, the Treasury could mint one or two Trillion dollar coins (yes, that's with a 'T'), walk them to the Federal Reserve, and deposit them, thus artificially raising the maximum borrowing costs.

The Federal Reserve could then remove some bonds from circulation, therefore undoing any inflationary damage to the economy. While the current Treasury administration has expressed doubts about this plan, there is a brand new Treasury Secretary about to take office, who has expressed no such doubts. Other than these unfounded concerns about the inflationary effects of the coins, and that such a tactic has never been attempted before, there are few drawbacks to such an option.

The debt ceiling is not a game; it is a bill for past payments. A deal with the recalcitrant House majority, like 2011, surrenders to the idea that it is okay-it is tolerable-to play a dangerously high-stakes game of chicken with the debt ceiling. Obama is right to not negotiate over it.

I just hope he keeps his word.
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