Debt ceiling showdowns aren’t new – but this time gonzo Republicans are ready to blow up the economy

‘It’s critical for Biden to continue paying the government’s bills and for the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, to continue using every bookkeeping scheme imaginable to find the means to pay those bills.’ Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

On 22 October 1985, the treasury secretary, James A Baker III, told congressional leaders that if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling by the end of the month, the Reagan administration would pay the nation’s bills by taking back treasury securities in which social security had invested.

It was an extraordinary move. Under Baker’s plan, social security would lose interest on its funds.