The good news is that Speaker John Boehner finally squeezed enough teabags to get a debt ceiling bill through the US House—just barely—218 to 210. Zero Democrats voted for the bill, joined by 22 Republicans in opposition. The bad news is that this bill has no chance of getting through the Senate as-is.

But via Yglesias (via Atrios), Yale law professor Jack Balkin offers a more creative solution to avoiding an imminent default:

Sovereign governments such as the United States can print new money. However, there's a statutory limit to the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation at any one time.

Ironically, there's no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.

Problem solved, at least temporarily. Of course we can't just expand the money supply ad infinitum, but inflation is low at the moment, and it would give us the breathing room to survive this particularly psychotic congress without sacrificing the full faith and credit of the US government in the process.

UPDATE: It only took two hours for the Senate to reject the House bill.