Obama using Republican scare tactics

[SpankMe]

"Obama warned this week he could not guarantee that older Americans will receive their Social Security checks next month if a deal is not reached."

From: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/16/debt.talks/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Obama should not say ridiculous stuff like this.

No matter what, the government would never stop social security payments. Even if there was a connection between the debt ceiling thing and Social Security / Medicare payouts, Congress would rush through legislation that would keep these payments going on an interim basis.

If anything, he should have put it this way: "If the Republicans stand in the way of a deal on the debt ceiling, I will make it my priority to continue Social Security payments."

Now, my crackpot, right-wing wife has more to bitch at me for.

[TheWraith]

1. Right, he should tell people there will be no consequences to letting the Republicans get their way.

Even though THAT would be a lie.

I'm always puzzled by DU. People here beat the shit out of Obama for "not fighting," then beat the shit out of him again when he throws the Republicans an elbow in the form of millions of pissed off seniors clogging their phone lines.

[theoldman]

2. Although SS is not a part of the federal debt there is a connection.

Post office employees are paid out of federal funds. If the PO employees are not paid, the checks don't go out. To be honest, I don't think the world will come to an end on August 2nd. Each party has used scare tactics in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

[TheWraith]

3. The personnel at the Social Security Administration are also government employees.

You can't mail a check that wasn't printed.

[spin]

4. My Social Security check does not come in the mail.

It's direct deposited into my bank account. Eighty five percent of those on Social Security get their money electronically.

Q. Do I have to receive my benefits electronically?

A. Yes. Effective May 1, 2011, applicants filing for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit payments must choose either direct deposit or the Direct Express® debit card. Currently entitled beneficiaries and recipients receiving payment by check will have until March 1, 2013 to switch to direct deposit or the Direct Express® debit card. As of March 2011, 85 percent of all Social Security and SSI beneficiaries received their benefits by direct deposit. emphasis added For more information, please visit the Department of the Treasury’s Go Direct® website http://www.godirect.org
http://www.ssa.gov/deposit/DDFAQ898.htm

[murielm99]

5. Thanks for posting this.

I was trying to find this the other day, and I had to leave. Someone here was trying to tell me that technophobic older folks mostly had their checks sent to them in snail mail.

My husband started getting SS in March, and they are direct deposit. He told me that those would be the choices in the near future.

I think that even the most technophobic would welcome direct deposit. Checks can be stolen or lost. And it is hard for many seniors to get out to the bank.

[spin]

9. Well I just turned 65 and went of Social Security when I was 62 ...

I'm on the younger end of those on the program and am far from technophobic. I suspect those who are not on direct deposit are on the older end of the Social Security spectrum.

I had the pay checks from the company I worked for direct deposited in my account when they first started the program. I have never had a single problem with direct deposit over the many years that I have used it.

[JVS]

11. The reason that the so-called "technophobic" don't like direct deposit is that...

when you get a real check you know exactly how much it is for and when it has been deposited. From this information you can pay your other bills and know that your own checks will be good. Even if there is a disruption in getting the check, you are the first to know, so measured can be taken (like delaying the payment of bills until later in the month, or dipping into savings temporarily until the problem is resolved). With direct deposit, you are waiting for the money to show up in your account. Checking to be sure it's in can involve numerous trips to the bank (least technical, calls to the bank to check balance, trips to the ATM to check your balance, a long wait for a bank statement that reflects the arrival of the deposit, or the use of a computer with internet (which a lot of people don't have/want and which involves risking identity theft) depending on just how "technophobic" they are. The one simple chore of depositing a check has been replaced by the more complicated task of monitoring their bank account and they no longer control when the money goes in. As a result they either end up doing more work to track this info down or they just get in the pattern of hoping everything goes smoothly and end up getting fucked over when someone up the line makes a mistake and they've already sent out a series of bad checks.

[spin]

15. If they were not technophobic, they would do what I do ...

I just go to my bank's web site, log in and check to see if the money was deposited. It probably takes me at the most two minutes and most of that time is going trough the several stage log in process my bank uses for security.

I haven't visited a bank in the last year and the last time was to get a form notarized. I pay my home loan and credit cards on line and I rarely have to send out a check to anyone as I use web sites to pay my bills.

I understand the fear about security and identity theft. That's why I have identity theft protection and insurance.

[Ikonoklast]

10. And those computers don't operate themselves.

They need government employees to program, maintain, and run those computers.

If they are all sent home, will the computers just keep working all by themselves?

Doubt it.

They might get turned off until the Federal Goverbnment pays the light bill.

[Joe the Revelator]

13. You think that just happens magically without government employees?

[spin]

16. I was merely pointing out that my check does not arrive by mail ...

to a poster who mentioned that checks have to be printed and mailed.

[spin]

18. If the government gets to that point, I suspect that every incumbent politician ...

will face a major challenge in the next election.

I can hear it now. The cry will be, "Throw all the bastards out!!!"

What both Republicans and Democrats have to realize is that many voters are growing extremely frustrated with the lack of cooperation between the two political parties and inability of both parties to reach a fair compromise.

Perhaps Obama and the Democrats can successfully convince voters that the Republicans and the influence of the Tea Party are at fault if our nation's credit rating is downgraded or we default. But here we are, once more, on the brink of a disaster. Most voters want a country that runs smoothly and avoids emergencies.

The surveys I have read do say that most people think that increasing taxes on the very rich and making sure corporations also pay a reasonable amount of taxes while at the same time decreasing expenditures through curtailing waste is a good idea.

Of course, I personally do believe that the rich should pay more. The Republicans chant that you don't want to increase taxes on those who create jobs does not impress me. If that were true we should have so many jobs that anyone who wanted a job should be able to find one quickly. All that all these tax breaks have accomplished is the destruction of what once was a powerful middle class. The distance between the rich and everybody else has turned into a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon.

However, the people I talk to are fed up with the people we elect behaving like children in a school ground and not maturely solving problems. They place blame on both parties. As Democrats we did have control for two years of both houses of Congress and the Presidency. We spent most of our efforts on passing a healthcare plan that didn't even impress many Democrats and our efforts to create jobs were less than stellar.

One reason the Republicans lost so badly during the last Presidential election was that they spent money like "drunken sailors" and managed to run the economy into the ditch. To hear them whine about spending strikes me as hypocritical at the least.

If I were an incumbent of either party, I would worry about voter backlash in the next election.

I suspect a temporary solution to this crisis will be found at the last minute. Then both parties will go back to playing the blame game and we will face a similar problem down the line.

[jaxx]

6. Unrec

[obxhead]

7. His advisers must read DU.

;)

[spanone]

8. says cnn... bwahahahahahaaa

[cy18]

12. Obama

I don't think Obama is so much using scare tactics as trying to get some things done.

[KittyWampus]

14. WRONG- Obama exposing the consequences of Republican dereliction of duty

in not just raising the debt ceiling.

[CatWoman]

17. you really, really do need

spanking

[Tejas]

19. I bet he won't see the TV remote for a month!

If his wife sees that post, he is in for it :rofl:

[CatWoman]

22. ....

:rofl:

[PoliticAverse]

20. Last week Bernanke said in the event of a default Bond holders would be paid...

but Social Security recipients might not be.

It's all about the cashflow.

[JoePhilly]

21. Sounds like your issue is with HER ....

that crack-pot right wing wife you married.

Why should she care if the checks go out ... the right wing wants to kill the entire program anyway.