Instead, they and everyone else in the administration will talk up the risk of a default over the next six weeks in order to put pressure on the Republican leadership to pass a "clean" bill authorising a higher debt limit, rather than insisting on spending cuts in return.
By giving away some of his stock now, Mr. Davis says, he won't have to worry that his sons could be forced to take ondebt or sell the company at a "fire-sale price" to satisfy the estate-tax bill they otherwise may incur upon his death.