President Obama told CBS News’s Scott Pelley that if the Republicans don’t agree to raise the debt ceiling he can’t guarantee that American senior citizens will receive their Social Security checks. He included veterans, but nothing about all of the young, able-bodied people on food stamps. He has sunk to an all new low.
“I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.
The Obama administration and many economists have warned of economic catastrophe if the United States does not raise the amount it is legally allowed to borrow by August 2.
Lawmakers from both parties want to use the threat of that deadline to work out a broader package on long-term deficit reduction, with Republicans looking to cut trillions of dollars in federal spending, while Democrats are pushing for a more “balanced approach,” which would include both spending cuts and increased revenue through taxes.
The final line in the article is a quote from yesterday that’s a classic: “This the United States of America and, you know, we don’t manage our affairs in three-month increments. You know, we don’t risk U.S. default on our obligations because we can’t put politics aside.” Really? Wasn’t it his party that failed to pass a budget when they had complete control of the federal government? Has he already forgotten the continuing resolutions that kept the government funded until the Republicans finally came up with a budget?
He also failed to mention that he and Tim Geithner will decide who gets paid and who doesn’t, and that it’s his insistence on tax increases that’s holding things up. The Republicans have offered a short term deal which he has rejected because he wants tax hikes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that as long as Obama is president they’ll never reach any agreement. House Speaker John Boehner is just as frustrated.
“Let me be crystal clear on this: At no time, ever, during this discussion did I agree to let taxes go up,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “I haven’t spent 20 years here fighting tax increases just to throw it all away in one moment. What I did do was lay out the conditions that would be necessary to make sure there would be no tax hikes.
“As the week went on, it became clear that the president wouldn’t accept those conditions,” he continued. “It became clear that they weren’t serious about structural reforms to the entitlement programs. It became clear that they would only do entitlement reform if it came along with tax hikes. It became clear that their vision of tax reform was to maintain many of the current code’s flawed features. That’s when I walked away.”
Boehner emphasized his support for a balanced-budget amendment, which one House GOP aide tells us was a signal to the conservative groups within the conference that he was taking a hard turn away from the White House and toward them, embracing an initiative that they have long championed. “I want to be clear,” Boehner reportedly said, “I support a balanced-budget amendment, and we’re going to fight for one.”…
Read the whole thing, you’ll find that reports of a GOP split in the House are overblown.
Obama waited until the last minute to get involved in these negotiations. Now Tim Geithner is out there issuing ultimatums while Obama’s scaring the elderly. It’s truly revolting.
Update: For a quick snapshot of the federal budget go here.
Update: See below for the amount the government brings in, and pays out, per week. Again, Obama will decide who gets paid and who doesn’t.
Also, Rep. Alan West responded to Obama, and didn’t pull any punches, calling him a “rigid ideologue” who leads by “intimidation and scare tactics.”
“My concern is that we have a President that is not willing to do his job and that is to prioritize the spending. That he is digging in his heels, being very intransigent, and he’s being a rigid ideologue. And he must understand that every single one of his economic policies have failed. So I think it’s time that he realize that he does not have the moral high ground in this argument.”
Also, Mitch McConnell has a new proposal out there that would make Obama own the national debt.
Update 2: Plenty of people are talking about this, including The Other McCain, The Camp of the Saints and That Mr. G Guy, who linked to Kurt Brouwer’s explanation of why the US won’t default even without a debt ceiling deal.
Q: What is a default?
A: In this case, a default would be the failure by the U.S. Treasury to make payments of principal or interest on its debt in a timely manner.
Q: In a given month how much does the Treasury owe as interest on its debt?
A: Roughly about $15–20 billion (more on this in a moment).
Q: How much revenue does the Treasury take in on average in a month?
A: Roughly about $200 billion.
Q: Are you saying the Treasury could pay interest on its debt 10 times over (or more) from monthly income?
A: Yes. Therefore the likelihood of not paying interest on its debt is zero.
Q: But, what about redeeming bonds that come due?
A: As bonds come due, the Treasury would again use monthly income to pay them off. This would lower the debt owed beneath the so-called debt ceiling. Then, the Treasury could turn around and issue debt in that amount up to the debt ceiling.
Q: Why then do Treasury Secretary Geithner and others in government make such apocalyptic statement about the horrors of default.
A: I’m afraid Secretary Geithner and others in government are doing the moral equivalent of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater and they are doing so for political reasons rather than financial reasons. They simply do not want any interruptions in the bloated spending underway in Washington and they want to scare Americans into thinking the end of the world is nigh unless the gravy train keeps chugging along.
Read the whole thing. Again, if Social Security recipients don’t receive their checks, it will be Obama’s doing.
Update: Linked by Ironic Surrealism
Tags: alan west, funding, Geithner, obama, old people, rigid ideologue, Senior Citizens, Social Security, threatens, veterans
McConnell has decided that instead of doing what is good for the country and actively increasing revenues along with cuts he has decided that he will just let the limit go up. In essence they again have handed power to the Executive branch which is rightfully owned by the Legislature. This is called not doing your job. I bet we could outsource congress to India for 1-200th of the price and get a better result.
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If half the country on SSI wasnt between the ages 18 and 35 maybe our country wouldnt be in this mess. I mean look at all themoney the government spends so that lazy ppl can it at home and laugh at the working class. I think its funny that the say we depend on these checks. Yeah i would love to sit at home and draw me a check every month also but in all honesty I think unless your so old you cant work you should be payng in your dues to society. These kids out here on welfare and SSI is the reason our country is in the shape its in. This country was long gone before Obama ever steped into the wite house. Americans need a better work ethic and realise that its not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. Get a Job Pay TAXES and we would be ok as a society.
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It’s dumb ases like you that make it seem like all Americans are lazy. When infact some people do need that SSI or foodstamps and stuff. How about the kids that have real health conditions that make it just about impossible for a parent to work. Yes there are a lot of people that recieve benefits that shouldn’t but thta does mean that every person that does get them doesn’t really need them. I will use me as example I recieve foostamps that is it foodstamps but if I didn’t have them my kids would starve. My Daughter got very sick a little over a year ago and I was taking her to the doctor about three times a week which caused me to loose my job. I have been looking for a job for over a year now and can’t find one becuase of the fact that I still have to take my daughter to the doctor about three times a month. Employers frown on that. It would be easier for people to survive without the benefits if there were jobs available and the cost of food and other things needed to survive were not so high. Don’t judge all people because some people are ignorant because you have no clue of what there situation is. I worked and worked my butt of and still couldn’t make it because the cost of living is so high. How instaed of taking from the people that really need take from the ones that don’t. The president could take a pay cut and all the represenatives too. I bet that would help our situation a lot. The president get about $400,000 a year for what he don’t have bills to pay. He makes more then people going to fight for us. How about using our resources instead of buying them from other countries. It is pathetic to take from the poor and give to the rich.
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Lets see I totally agree with you with all the younger kids getting the ssi and welfare monthly but my husband of 55 is getting ssi because back in 2002 he fell on some ice on the job and now has a 7 inch titanium plate with screws in his neck that holds his neck together. He is in constant pain 24/7 with no releif. Not even able to lay down in a bed. Not even able to do every day things. Try living like that all the time. He has worked hard all his life and Im sure he would love to be working now instead of sitting home collecting a check as you said. So not all that are on the SSI or welfare are deadbeats. Some of them do deserve it. Now the problem is would be to go through and determine who that might be. But you have so many that walk through those Social Security doors that just have enough documentation from a doctor to collect a check!!!!
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Half the country on SSI between 18 and 35?
What are you talking about?
“Unless you are so old you can’t work you should be paying your dues to society?”
People in their 70, 80′s and 90′s have worked for 50 years or more – that’s half a century.
Most of them had to start working before they were even old enough to officially work. Everyday they worked, everyday for more than half their lifetime, money was taken out of their pay.
SSI is THEIR money!!
But if you are talking about the scum that have five children with unkown fathers and make more money than people who are working, I totally agree with you.
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[...] Liberaland, Washington Wire, The TrogloPundit, RedState, Talking Points Memo, The Enterprise Blog, The Lonely Conservative, Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, Swampland, Say Anything, [...]
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We get roughly 75 billion dollars per week in revenue.
The interest on our national debt is 6 billion per week.
The payments to social security are 4.3 billion per week.
The payments to Veterans(Disability and Education) is 2.7 billion per week.
The payments to the military is 7 billion per week.
The payments to Medicare is 10 billion per week.
This equals 30 billion per week.
We have 45 billion left over to continue to pay for things.
The cost of Iraq and Afghanistan is 3 billion per week.
The cost of all other foreign aid and military expenditures is 3.3 billion per week.
We now have 38 billion left over.
The cost for the education department per week is 2 billion.
The cost for all welfare services is 2 billion per week.
The cost for the department of transportation is 1 billion per week.
We now have 33 billion left over.
I think you get the point……….OBAMA is a FREAKIN LIAR.
If Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Va and pension checks dont go out on August 3rd it will be because the Chimperor in Chief is an idiot and doesnt want them to go out. It will be by executive order not to pay old folks and the military.
It will not be because suddenly there is NO money if we cant borrow anymore.
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If the SS checks don’t go out on August 3rd, the “floor” will fall out from under millions of people who rely on it. My husband and I rely solely on SS. We don’t get it, we might as well pack up & leave our home to the bank. By the way, I would need to find a place for me and my 100% disabled husband to go that will house us for free. Down the tubes will be the medical supplies & care that he needs. He doesn’t qualify for a nursing home, and if he did, who will pay for it? We currently pay a total of $210/mo. to Medicare. That will stop too if SS is stopped.
Think our economy is bad now? Stop SS, Medicare, and VA and see what happens!
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My husband is totally disables and on SSDI, that he receives the 3rd of each month, I got laid off due to lack of work in December 2011, unemployment has ran out, and no job prospects as of yet. We are raising a nine year old child, are sole income is his Disability, if it doesn’t come out, we can’t pay our utility bill, mortgage, or buy food to feed our child. My husband is a Viet Nam vet besides, and this would be the thanks he gets for having served his country. If Obama stops these payments from going out to millions of Americans whose very existence depends on them, I hope our country does the right thing and has him impeached. Enough is enough already, he is destroying America!
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I totally agree with your comments. He is hitting all the disabled and elderly people below the belt. He is using scare tactics to get hie way. He ia a sad excuse for a man let alone a prosident. I am prayio g he will be impeached and shipped back to Kenya on a slave ship
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McDonalds hires all the time try that since you used up all your unemployment–there are jobs out there ppl would rather sit on there behinds than work thats the problem in this society! Except for the elderly and disabled(trueky disabled) they are the ones that will suffer
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I do not think you understand that McDonalds does hire, but unfortunately for the unemployed who lost there jobs because of no fault of there own, they are over qualified for the positions available at McDonalds. Yes I am employed and it took two years of looking after losing my job because of a company closure. I am not lazy and not willing to work, I went on hundreds of interviews but was over qualified for most of the positions available. Corporate America is still not hiring regardless of what our politicians in Washington are telling us. Obama is using a scare tactic to make the American people want the tax increases he is proposing. He should eliminate his salary and the rest of the politians in Washington instead of take money away from the hard working individuals that payed into social security for 30 to 40 years. Stop punishing the working class Americans and our military personel who deserve little bit they get. What is wrong with this Country is individuals like yourself who spouts off at the mouth making statements without ever doing any research into what truely is going on in America. We do not have a lazy society we have a corrupt government and a greedy corporate America that has destroyed out economy.
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Depends on where you live if there are jobs or not. I live in southeastern KY in the Applachian Mountains, and there are NO jobs here. The towns are very small, no inudstry except the coal industry and we have one McDonalds. The whole down can’t work at the same place. Oh, and we have one KFC as well. So, no, not EVERYONE is lazy. Even our one hospital here is laying off people that have been there for years. I’m sorry, but really I believe Obama hates our country and is doing his darndest to destroy it. He is childish and unqualified and to me doesn’t have the best interest of this country at heart.
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I am in the same boat with you. My husband is on ssdi and this is how our bills are paid. I myself work just to make our ends meet but without his income there is no way we will make it. My husband would love to go back to work but because of his health there is no way, and he gets very depress by this. It’s really sad how people abuse this, there are so many people on ssi that don’t need it and should be working. Do you know they give ssdi to people that are over weight, I say help these people with these medical conditions instead of placing them on ssdi. There are also mothers out there that won’t let their children get the right education or even put the afford into their children so they can place them on ssdi just to get a check. I myself just heard of a story where a mother would over feed her child just so she would be places on ssdi. Mothers like this should be charged with child endangerment. I myself have copd and had ards and was told by many doctors to apply for ssdi but I choose to work. I say we all should camp out on the door step of the White House!!!!
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I should have pointed out above that our income from all revenue sources MINUS borrowing is 48 billion dollars per week. 75 billion if we throw in weekly auctions of treasuries.
Even so at 48 billion the above expenditures come to 42 billion per week. That leaves us with 6 billion left over to party on. Thats roughly 300-400 billion a year to pay for everything else the government deems necessary.
There most certainly is a SPENDING problem with our government and both parties are almost equally as guilty…..but again if old folks dont get paid its because OBAMA personally chose to NOT pay them.
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[...] Lonely Conservative [who was kind enough to link your Humble Dispatcher] sums-up the whole situation very nicely: Obama waited until the last minute to get involved in these [...]
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somewhere in Nigeria a village is missing their idiot. what a monster, he is to take fromthe elderly and still pay for all of the illegals.Get the people on welfare that can work to work. this administration is a joke, bad dream, horrible mistake. NOBAMA for me,ever again.
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[...] Also see: Lonely Conservative’s excellent roundup: –If Social Security Checks Stop Going Out it Will Be Obama’s Fault – Updated [...]
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[...] stop receiving their Social Security payments in the event the debt ceiling is not increased, it will be President Obama’s fault. He has his priorities, and winning the next election is right there at the top. So is continuing [...]
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I know how you feel about this. I’ m on ssi, and my mother is on SS. we pond on those checks. We have a $1300 Rent and others bills to pay. If we don’t get those checks, that means my brother will have to pay for everything. He don’t make that much to do that. We better get those checks in next month. Or I’ll e-mail the President. We will be very upset with him.
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find cheaper rent for one but yes i agree the elderly need there checks to live.
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oBAMA WHY IN THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU COULD STOP PEOPLE BENEFITS ME AND MY FAMILY IS TRYING OUR BEST TO MAKE IT YOU SHOULD BE ASHAME OF YOURSELF AND YOUR COUNTRY.
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I hate to tell you this, but he wants us all to suffer. He likes crisis, and never wants to let one go to waste. The Republicans came up with a plan. He rejected it.
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enema, you’re an idiot and you obviously haven’t been paying attention for at least 30 years if you’re even that old.
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And I’ll say the same to you Off-The-Mark. You’re a fool as well. Pay attention to who the Ruling Progressives chum with. Wall St., Goldman Sachs and big business, GE in particular. They seize private business in the phony cry of “fairness” and then stiff bondholders. It’s called fascism; Mussolini said that it should be called corporatism. Read your history and try to learn something.
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the lord see every thing up above
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thank you
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im on ssi & ss i can live with out it the people out there that realy need it should stay on it but when obama gives it to the drunks & the drugies that why we have no money, how do u think we are going to live eat take a bath wash are clothes feed are babies buy feed for are cats or dogs, some of the rich people out there shouldnt be getting ss & ssi i worked my days & i cant work anymore im 45 years old & i have a hard time walking, the kids & babies with ms & cancer is obama going to let them die hes a black-white motherfucker if he stops the ss & ssi, “OBAMA GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE HOUSE U DONT BELONG THERE UR A LIER & A B/W TREADER”.
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i cant live with out my ssi & ss i messed up on my first add sorry but “OBAMA GO BACK WHERE U CAME FROM GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE USA”..
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tracey, with a small t, your choice of vocabulary becomes noisome. We are a literate and reasonably bright group here, and caught your drift right off. You’ve lost your fresh.
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I think if they are talking about cutting ss checks then why not cut obamas pay he dont deserve to be payed and live in the white house for free i dont think our troups should have been at war all these years and spend all that money for that war and stop the nasa flights to the moon who cares whats up there thanks
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You know, Im sitting worrying about how im gonna feed the kids pay the every month for a long time. Yeah, Obama should be ashamed sitting up there on his high horse with everything no worries of where his next meal for his family is coming from, etc.. But we all need to wake and smell the coffee this is no longer The land of free.. They sit up in the white house for hours and days and weeks and months and years trying to tell the people they are trying to do the best for us… Its no longer about the people, its about what they can do for themselves.. No matter we put in office or get out office its not gonna change.. The government sits around passing idiotic laws that should be on the burner and worrying more about how americans are going to help each other survive. We all sit around and blame the Obama administration but “wake up people” look at the past eight years with “Bush’s administration”. Obama stepped into a disaster and everyone just expected us to get back on our feet just like that.. But we were already in grave situation when he took over. But u know what I guarantee u that know one in washington ever worries about how to pay their bills.. I draw disability and my husband draws for disabled veteran.. We need to stop sending money to other countries and start worry about America…. I mean why help other countries survive when we cant even get our country in order. I see so commericals for sending food for children in other countries but what the ones right here in the U.S.A that are starving.. We will lose everything without our checks. But stopping our checks isnt the answer. Obama threating like this uncalled for.. Instead of stopping the checks “Lets not pay anyone” such as Obama and everyone else in washington for the month for August and see how much we save….
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I have a Autistic child on disability. I haven’t been able to get a job especially with this 14% unemployment rate within my area and I don’t know who’ll take care of him. I guess I’ll need to start to look harder and beg more.I hate depending on any hand out but I really didn’t have much of a choice at the time. I also won’t be voting for Mr.Obama in 2012. His scare tactics aren’t only childish but humiliating.
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obama is the worst president this country ever had since i been alive,he needs to be impeached and sent back to wherever this piece of garbage came from! well AMERICA see what yall voted for sure glad i didn’t vote for that sorry piece of crap. GOD BLESS OUR GREAT NATION
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When are you folks going to learn to blame Big business and the Republican party. They got us in this mess and they are keeping us in the mess. If you keep this up the Republicans will make sure none of you have any checks. Come on folks get a clue. Stop voting for the Tea Party and the Republican party they don’t support the values or needs of lower income people.
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