The Real Reason Hitting The Debt Limit May Mean Social Security Checks Stop

IM-Implode.com ^ | 7-14-2011 | Aaron Krowne

[abb]

Good point. But to do that, we would have to regress to a barter system. Not practical in today’s times.

[justa-hairyape]

If the U. S. defaults on debt obligations (bonds), then there is no longer any moral obligation for taxpayers to pay taxes.

Wont be much paid in taxes anyway. Unemployment is high and profits for domestic businesses are down significantly. So Obama was lying when he stated.

He is not bluffing. They have not only stolen our retirement savings, but they intend to not return the funds they stole. This government is illegitimate.

[justa-hairyape]

The deepest cuts should be in the extremely bloated welfare system.

All illegal aliens and visa holders should be kicked out of the country. That is what Japan did when they were overwhelmed by the Tsunami. We cannot support the worlds transients anymore because our corrupt government has stolen our money.

[justa-hairyape]

What Congressional Republican has been talking about this? Obama is the one that brought it up.

Probably alluding to reformist Republicans who have been saying that social security will default if not reformed. Default meaning not paying. The Dimwits were the one saying that default was not possible because the magical fairy prince told them so.

[meyer]

This whole thing is BS as Mark Levin has been saying. Without touching the debt ceiling at all the country will take in 200B in August of which something like 30B is interest on debt. They could pay debt interest, SS, medicare, medicaid even, and all military costs and then worry about what else to pay for but pain is the name of the game here and putting SS in jeopardy is pure politics. Bork Obunga has a basic and severe problem with priorities.

Yep - they left is threatening SS for the same reason that the local school board threatens after-school programs and bus service instead of trimming a few layers of useless administrators whenever they want a tax increase.

[RFEngineer]

“Good point. But to do that, we would have to regress to a barter system. Not practical in today’s times.”

I’m not so sure the IRS will care if certain people they select are forced to barter. I’m sure there will be banking alternatives for some of those people. I think to your point though, once people stop paying - and become scofflaws in the eyes of the government over taxes, it’s awfully hard to imagine them coming back into the fold.

[Freedom4US]

You’ve hit on the Achilles Heel of the modern (last 100 years) political state.

Politicians campaign on giving away Free Stuff, and not surprisingly get elected. They then either don’t fund it because they want to get re-elected, or they raid whatever money is accrued to campaign for yet more Free Stuff.

Eventually though, the bills come, the numbers don’t lie. And here we are.

[oldbrowser]

Even if the SSTF had real assets, the program is structurally unsustainable.

So that is the reason they squandered the money, because it was unsustainable?
Are you taking inflation into account when you say that?
I remember a nice new house with a big yard could be had for 7 or 8 thousand dollars.

[Freedom4US]

I hate to be the one that breaks it to you, but politicians at the local, state, and federal level stopped caring about public sentiment about a hundred years ago. They’ve done a reasonable job of brainwashing many into thinking all of this nonsense is really what they want, or “it’s for the children” or various other techniques to quash dissent, but the mask will soon come off. It has to, because of what’s likely coming. It was all planned that way, if you can believe that. Unfortunately you are talking of a world that no longer exists.

[justa-hairyape]

The IRS looks at barter transactions the same way they do cash transactions.

[aruanan]

The Real Reason Hitting The Debt Limit May Mean Social Security Checks Stop

The real reason is that the executive branch controls Treasury, Obama controls the executive branch, and someone controls Obama. That someone wants a. to use the money that would normally go to Social Security for funding something else, and b. to use this diversion of funds to blame the Republican for not letting Barry have his way and spending even more money that would do the very same thing even more quickly.

Today I was talking to someone (who was probably an Obama voter) who said that we weren't meant to drink cold drinks because in our stomach the cold drink just gels. I told her the stomach had so much hydrochloric acid in it that it wasn't possible for a gel to form. She asked me how to deal with acid in the stomach. I told her I take ranitidine. She asked what that was. I said it was something that reduced acid production. She said she takes vinegar. I said that when she took vinegar she was adding acid (albeit a very small amount of very weak acid) to her stomach. Someone else there told her that she was talking to a scientist. She said that scientists just believe whatever they read in books but she believes what people experience and tell her. With folks like this in the world, there is NO hoping they'll see through the Obama scam.

[justa-hairyape]

That was the butter. Guns = Military. Butter = Welfare.

[abb]

I think to your point though, once people stop paying - and become scofflaws in the eyes of the government over taxes, it’s awfully hard to imagine them coming back into the fold.

My thinking, and it is IMO, is that if the Fed Gov doesn't meet its DEBT obligation - US Treasuries - then they, too are scofflaws.

It could be an inflection point.

[Twinkie]

They’re going to have to cut EVERYTHING. It’s bitter medicine, but they need to do it. It’s like an addiction; but not reasonable to not face the hard facts NOW.

[KittenClaws]

Unfortunately you are talking of a world that no longer exists.

Yes. And I am proud to have been a part of it. I'm old enough that I won't reap the "rewards" of this backwards society.

It is my duty to ring the bell, but if the current crop of "I don't give a darns" - don't give a darn...no skin off of my nose.

When I'm dead, no one will care, when this country is dead, they won't even notice.

So maybe I should just STFU.

[Freedom4US]

LBJ didn’t want to raise taxes to help pay for the Vietnam War. He also started a ginormous “War on Poverty” social spending programs.

So, the budget was looking pretty weak. And foreign central banks were demanding gold in exchange for their dollars. Social security receipts and trust fund monies were merged into the general fund and have been ever since the “unified budget”.

At least none of the goof ball politicians are running around saying everything is fine as they were not long ago. And Grandma can sleep well, knowing that foreign bondholders are first in line during our bankruptcy reorg, and getting her check is dependent on borrowing money overseas from those same bondholders.

[arthurus]

More than anything, this would show the federal government simply is not omnipotent as has been assumed since the Great Depression; it has just been coasting for decades on raw dollar imperialism, and then when that ran out, a series of macro-financial scams to keep the status quo going and politicians in their cozy dynastic tenures.

The US is not so terribly different in this regard from the old USSR. The Soviets coasted for almost half a century on the assets looted from Eastern Europe. When those ran out and Reagan/JohnPaul/Thatcher pushed, the whole thing collapsed. Now our government has been coasting on the assets it has stolen by deflation and regulation from its own citizens and from the rest of the world and has run out of assets. The feet are still running but the cliff edge has been passed and China and Iran and the kenyan are pushing.

[justa-hairyape]

Yes. A 25 % cut across the board, no Obama exemptions, is about the only way politically to begin to get out of this mess. But there will still be millions getting funds from the guv who will be upset, but hey, all of us in the private sector have already got haircuts, while we have been eating our peas for the past two years.

[Freedom4US]

That’s part of the scam - they _absolutely_ depend on elimination of folks who “remember how things used to be”, and essentially dumb down whole swaths of the population in order to foist their schemes. A smart, thrifty, god-fearing populace is a lot tougher to swindle. I don’t know where you live but there are plenty of clueless around here!

[KittenClaws]

That’s part of the scam - they _absolutely_ depend on elimination of folks who “remember how things used to be”, and essentially dumb down whole swaths of the population in order to foist their schemes. A smart, thrifty, god-fearing populace is a lot tougher to swindle. I don’t know where you live but there are plenty of clueless around here!

But, you are not clueless. I am in West Texas. Where are you?