By James Oliphant / Los Angeles Times / July 12, 2011, 11:00 a.m.
A failure to raise the nation’s debt ceiling could result in some seniors not receiving Social Security checks, President Obama said in an interview with CBS News that will air Tuesday evening.
“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,” Obama told “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley.
The assertion marks the latest attempt by the White House to frame the stakes in the sometimes abstract debt-ceiling debate in terms the American public can grasp, while placing increasing pressure on congressional Republicans.
During his news conference Monday, Obama spoke in similar terms, saying a failure to raise the $14.3-trillion limit would result in “a crisis of confidence in the markets, and suddenly interest rates are going up significantly, and everybody is paying higher interest rates on their car loans, on their mortgages, on their credit cards, and that’s sucking up a whole bunch of additional money out of the pockets of the American people.”
In the CBS interview, Obama added that “this is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veterans’ checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out.”
For the remainder of this article, please go here.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good move, Mr President – oppress the seniors, sick & vets.
Bet there’s enough money to pay him, congress, the bureaucrats & the military-industrial-congressional complex multi-trillion dollar war machine.
The $86 million he’s gotten so far for his re-election campaign needs to be “repaid,” after all. Campaign “promises” be damned.
Is his goal to redeem & make us long for the bad old days under W?
If so, he just may succeed.
However Obama and his cabinet and every bum in the Senate and Congress will receive every dime. Oh and president Cheney will still get his pension. Taxes will NOT be raised on the super rich. Good chance the YACHT STAMP bill will pass. Pull up your bootstraps grandma.
And the die hard supporters are positively orgasmic! Isn’t he smart? what a great maneuver! 12 dimensional chess! It is despicable move whether he means it or not. Let’s start with the military budget and not pay for new nukes, bunker busters, mercenaries all over the damn world. How many seniors do you think , began to worry how to pay rent, buy food, meds, next month? Shameful! It may be all fun and games to them, oneupsmanship, but it is our daily lives they are screwing with.
these are the things everyone needs to remember come election time but what will happen is……..you know he did’nt do that bad of a job……we’ll be able to pay down the debt in this next term…….think before you vote …remember before you vote..