Debt Ceiling Cop-Out

Mitch McConnell had a plan to punt on the debt ceiling. Basically, Congress would cede its authority to raise the debt ceiling to the Executive Branch for the remainder of Obama's term in office, retaining only the right to block such an increase by an affirmative two-third supermajority vote which, obviously, would never happen. Three main thoughts about that:

1. Yippee! Substantively, it would be amazing if they would just agree to raise the debt limit, or even better, scrap the concept for the time being, and just let this whole effing debt negotiation stop.
2. Once upon a time, a wise Congress ditched the debt ceiling altogether, just authorizing an unlimited amount of debt in perpetuity. Unfortunately a foolish Congress later re-instated the limit, but there's no reason why this Congress couldn't destroy the limit as well.
3. The specific mechanics of this plan strike me as really weird. It's phrased as "giving the executive the power to raise the debt limit," but since the debt limit is really just the maximum amount of debt that Congress has authorized (as it must do under the Constitution), that's a strange way to put it. Ultimately what's going on here is that Congress authorizes the executive to issue an unlimited amount of debt, and claims to restrict itself from revoking that authorization for a few years except by a two-thirds vote. That last bit is clearly impossible, or it would be if the maxim that a legislature cannot bind its future self still held true. The specific device of an executive request followed by a potential Congressional veto is also, I think, the kind of thing the Supreme Court has frowned upon.

But first and foremost, this does seem to suggest that McConnell's corporate overlords really, really want this limit raised. Maybe the wealthy/business community would like a "deficit reduction" deal best of all, but if the deal looks impossible then they clearly prefer not tanking the world economy. One almost wonders, in fact, if Obama knows that, and is trying to make his final offer that Republicans end up rejecting, and then settling for a clean debt increase in lieu of, as "reasonable" (which is to say right-wing) as possible, so that he ends up looking that much better. That's the optimistic interpretation, anyway.

UPDATE: Apparently the plan is even crazier than I thought. I think I take back the "Yippee!" part, though I still hope they end up raising the limit and/or scraping it somehow without making any big ol' spending cuts.