Obama "Cannot Guarantee" Social Security Benefit Checks Will Be Paid If Debt Deal Isn't Reached

[Cheryl Nelson]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-cannot-guarantee-benefits-checks-paid-debt-deal-183025203.html

[Alex Cortes]

@Pat,

 

I think people are missing the point, what he said is that if the dept ceiling is not raised it would affect many many people, including social security recipients and service men and women.....he does not have the power to raise the dept ceiling that falls into the hands of congress.  And if you haven't noticed, Mitch McConnell as a political ploy, has proposed giving Obama the power to raise the dept ceiling after congressional approval.....which is not how it works.  They are just tossing the dept ceiling ball back into his court. 

 

The effort is to make Obama look like the culprit for us defaulting as a nation which contrary to popular belief is not the end of the world just  a worse credit rating making it harder for us as a nation to work our way out of dept.  But of course as always this is simply my opinion support by a few facts. 

[Cheryl Nelson]

No, Coedwig, we cannot continue to print money.  Russia and China are becoming very upset with the US for doing so.  Very scary times

[pat staley]

Coedwig, very true.

[Coedwig the Druid]

@ Cheryl, I saw that on the news this evening!  Very scary times.  If that happens my best guess would be chaos in the financial sector!  These are grave times, indeed.  Even if the US government comes to some sort of agreement, it is going to get very ugly.  I honestly don't think that the average person on the street realizes exactly what is going on here.  One thing is for sure, we can not continue printing funny money and pretending that we are accomplishing anything.

Coedwig

[Cheryl Nelson]

Moody's Warns It May Downgrade US Credit Rating
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Moodys-warns-it-may-downgrade-apf-115...

[Byron wilkins]

During an election year the blame game gets out of control and little sence can be made from all the fake bickering going on. The real fact is were broke and borrowing more money or printing more funny money is the only temporary remedy to solve the problem that will not go away and become more of a problem. The banks are in charge of this country not democrats republicans or our president. What you are watching on tv is a well acted play to keep fear instilled in you.

[Coedwig the Druid]

@ Pat, Yes, I agree, I saw him speak too but that is not something he has control over.  If Congress cannot agree on our credit rating, debt ceiling, then we will default and our credit will be downgraded which would be devastating to our economy.  The Tea Party and Republicans are not budging so that we will have no way to borrow money to pay our bills.  These bills include Social Security and military wages, any Federal wages for that matter.  This is not in Obama's hands, he is trying to get both houses of Congress to come to an agreement to avoid our defaulting on our loans.  The problem is much deeper than this though.  The Republicans are correct, we cannot keep borrowing, robbing Peter to pay Paul, but their answer is to cut spending only.  What needs to happen is to not only cut spending but to also raise income by closing the loop holes that exist ONLY for the wealthy and huge corporations.  It is so very complicated but it is so very scary.

Coedwig

[pat staley]

Obama said this stuff him self this morning to a reporter.  Social Security isn't the only checks, he also said service men and women won't get theirs either.

[Alex Cortes]

Thanks for taking the time to clarify Coedwig

[Coedwig the Druid]

I think the point that Obama is making is that the treasury will be unable to make the payments.  It's not due to any decision the President is making.  It's just like when there is no money in our checking accounts.  No money, no payments.  The US government cannot take on more debt because that is what the law says, so if we cannot borrow money to make payments, the payments cannot be made.  That is the point that the President is trying to make.  There is nothing dictatorial about it.  As Alex stated, he is just one man.  The Republican's are the ones spreading the rumors that Obama is trying to disrupt S.S.  Basically they are throwing our nation under the bus to try to regain power!

Namaste,

Coedwig