Obama: No Social Security Guarantee In August If GOP Doesn’t Back Down (VIDEO)

[sasha031]

For the first time in public, President Obama has warned that crucial benefits for retirees, veterans, and disabled people might not go out early next month if Republicans don't relent in the debt limit fight.

"This is not just a matter of Social Security checks," Obama told CBS News in an interview that will air Tuesday night. "These are veteran's checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out each month. I can not 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."

If you were wondering when President Obama would clarify the stakes and increase the pressure on Republicans to drop their ideological rigidity, consider it upped.

Watch the video below the fold:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/obama-no-social-security-guarantee-in-august-if-gop-doesnt-back-down-video.php

[mzmolly]

1. He's making the case for government,

I see.

[Marr]

2. And here comes the fear campaign.

Get ready for a steady drumbeat of this sort of thing, right up to zero hour when we get the 'grand compromise' that saves us all from the bogeyman they just made up.

The threat is not legitmate. The debt ceiling will be raised, not because veterans need their checks, but because Wall Street demands it. They would be devastated by a default, and there is no way on earth these politicians (the very same politicians who have regularly proven themselves tools of Wall Street in the past, no less) will ignore the demands of their bosses.

[hedgehog]

4. That's just it. Boehner said something to the effect that everyone

knows you say stuff to get elected, but settle down to business once you reach Washington. The problem is that the Tea Party republican freshmen didn't get that memo.

[democrat_patriot]

5. Is he lying?

If we have $100 in debts, and only $70 to pay them with (without borrowing) who do we pay?

Military
War spending
Homeland Security, FBI, CIA etc.
Air traffic controllers
Of course congress members, judges etc...
Payments on interest on the debt
'vital' government workers

EPA?
Coast Guard?
SS?
Medicare?
Medicaid?

What gets cut? Might be SS, can't guarantee it won't be. He's not lying.

[Windy]

6. there will be no payroll to pay the govt. employees to get out those checks either.

I am stunned that some here think that this is somehow Obama's fault. He is doing what needs to be done. The repubs are showing themselves for the obstructionists they are. If you get your head out of DU for awhile (PUMA and non alike) you will see that the country, by a great percentage, sees Obama as the adult.

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. SS is direct deposit. Paying people is done by computer and automated.

Medicare is automatically deducted before SS is paid.

What of the argument that he just claimed we may not have "money in the coffers to do it"? That just validated the RW talking point that SS (and Medicare) are part of the budget deficit as opposed to separate and self-funded.

[Marr]

7. In the sense that this is a phony crisis, yes.

The threat to throw the government into default and wreck our economy is not a credible one. If the President truly thinks it is, then he should (and would) invoke the 14th amendment and simply deal with this threat to the nation summarily. You can make a cute legal argument about the impracticality of such a move if you like, but history is chock full of examples of the letter of the law taking a back seat to the demands of capital.

[bahrbearian]

15. He is the decider, he chooses where the money goes, he can guarantee where the money goes.

[jaxx]

8. It's not a threat, it's telling it like it is.

We default and all hell breaks loose.

Remember, the actual debt limit was reached in May. We are existing on moving money around right now....Aug. 2 is the end.

[KittyWampus]

9. Wrong. The Republicans will cause a default and will not raise taxes.

[Marr]

14. No, they won't.

But they have everything to gain from pretending as much, and I'm sure the neoliberals in our own party very much appreciate the political cover.

If the President really believed that a handful of politicians was determined to crash the US economy if their demands weren't met, he would invoke the 14th amendment and simply deal with the situation summarily. And if economic armageddon really was sitting just off the bow, the markets would be freaking out.

[robinlynne]

3. This increases pressure on us, not on the GOP.

[KittyWampus]

10. No, it doesn't.

[Ruby the Liberal]

11. "There simply may not be the money in the coffers to do it" >> MAJOR screwup there

He just gave validity to the talking point that SS is part of the budget deficit as opposed to self-funded and currently at a surplus.

I feel sick.

[robinlynne]

13. EXACTLY!!!