It sounds like you’re missing my point.
The “utility” in doing what I’m suggesting, assuming it can be done (which is my question, whether it can legally be done) is that it would enable Obama to spring at $50 billion from the SS trust fund in August and possibly a nearly equivalent amount from other trust funds. This could give him an additional $100 billion to allocate in August, so instead of coming up $140 billion short, he’s only $40 billion short of making all the August payments.
You ask where he gets the additional $50 billion. That’s the process I was describing. You convert it from non-public debt to public debt by issuing public T-bills and canceling the equivalent amount of non-public debt (so the total debt remains under the debt ceiling.)
I’m not sure what to make of this, exactly. I’m really just wondering if it could be done, and if so, if anyone in the government has contemplated doing it. For all I know, there could well be a law prohibiting it, not that the current administration would feel constrained by any such law.
The non-public debt holding is, after all, an asset to the trust fund. I’m wondering if that asset can be converted to public debt, raising an equivalent amount of cash from the public in the process, that’s all.
I am not only missing your point, I can't understand your logic. There us no money in the SSTF to spring. I gave you OMB's description of the trust fund "assets", i.e., Thus, the balances of trust funds are not a measure of resources available to pay future obligations for the respective programs; those resources will need to come from federal revenues or additional borrowing in the years those obligations are due.
Where is Obama going to get $50 billion to "spring" some IOU's from the Trust Fund? And what is the utility in redeeming the Trust Fund IOUs? You would have to deposit the cash into the Trust fund or issue new IOUs.
The non-public debt holding is, after all, an asset to the trust fund. I’m wondering if that asset can be converted to public debt, raising an equivalent amount of cash from the public in the process, that’s all.
Sorry, but that is just pure sophistry. "The balances of trust funds are not a measure of resources available to pay future obligations for the respective programs; those resources will need to come from federal revenues or additional borrowing in the years those obligations are due." Basically, the IOUs represent the full faith and credit of the USG to pay future benefits. They can't be converted into real assets. Again, the SSTF is included in the $14.3 trillion national debt.