Debt ceiling: Will I get my Social Security check?

[truebluefan]

Can the government afford to send out Social Security checks next week if the debt ceiling isn't raised?

The 28 million Americans expecting their payments on Aug. 3 will have to wait and see. Another 27 million people are scheduled to get checks later in the month.

President Obama keeps warning that the government may not have enough money to pay all its bills, including Social Security, if the debt ceiling impasse isn't resolved by Aug. 2.

If "we default, we would not have enough money to pay all of our bills -- bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans' benefits and the government contracts we've signed with thousands of businesses," Obama said in a televised address Monday night.

Missing Social Security payments is no small matter. The checks represent about 41% of the income of the elderly. Many seniors depend on it for 90% or more of their income.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/28/news/economy/debt_ceiling_social_security/index.htm

 

[Denny Crane]

Scare the elderly is a well-known Democratic Party tactic. Yet, if Obama decides not to pay SS payments, then he's deliberately screwed over these people. There is plenty of money to pay those payments, whether the debt ceiling is raised or not.

The "default" claims and these scare tactics are the worst thing to come out of this debacle.

 

[truebluefan]

True it is a scare tactic, but its not just the democrats. I remember, "Pull the plug on grandma." and my in-laws watch Fox news. They are scared to death of all kinds of crap they pitch on there.

 

[Hunter]

It just shows how corrupt the media is these days. Scare tactics is good for viewership and its engaging to listeners. The US government I think brings in $200+ billion a month which would have been plety to fund SS, Medicare, medicade and defense and pay the interest on the national debt. Obama made all those threats because he was playing public opinion and wanted to scare old people and get them to call their congressman's office and make a big deal out of it.

 

[Eastoff]

It just shows how corrupt the media is these days. Scare tactics is good for viewership and its engaging to listeners. The US government I think brings in $200+ billion a month which would have been plety to fund SS, Medicare, medicade and defense and pay the interest on the national debt. Obama made all those threats because he was playing public opinion and wanted to scare old people and get them to call their congressman's office and make a big deal out of it.

Yeah, Obama sure showed those dumb old people! He got to let the republicans cut taxes. And he didn't get to raise any revenue. And he got to uh... YEAH DUMB OBAMA!

 

[Hunter]

Yeah, Obama sure showed those dumb old people! He got to let the republicans cut taxes. And he didn't get to raise any revenue. And he got to uh... YEAH DUMB OBAMA!

He didn't really have a choice. The GOP in the House refused to consider revenues as part of the equation for increasing the debt limit. I think many democrats assumed that when the 11th hour came, the GOP would back off their stance on taxes and allow for a balanced approach (hence his balanced speech on prime-time Monday and his subsequent appearances at the White House briefing room. When the 11th hour came and republicans didn't budge, it came down to point where Obama had to make a decision to agree to the no revenues or call the Republicans bluff.

In my opinion he made a good political decision, had he refused to do a cuts only package and not raise the debt ceiling, he would have gotten blamed for default as President especially after the House had passed not one, but two packages while the Democrats hadn't passed anything.

The deal was crappy to both sides but at least the debt ceiling got raised. I still think the US has a chance of getting downgraded but then I don't know if any of the rating agency's would be bold enough to take that step. I mean, if the US isn't considered risk-free, its hard to assume that other countries who currently have AAA status would be in the global market's eyes.