In what is nothing more than one more example of his typical Chicago thug-style of politics, Barry "Almighty" has now raised the stakes regarding the ongoing budget talks Tuesday by making what is essentially nothing more that a very thinly veiled threat that he intend to be making senior citizens and veterans the first ones to suffer if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2. His comments came as top Republicans appeared to have toughened their stance in the deficit reduction talks. Hours before heading to the White House, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said a "real solution" to the U.S. debt problem was unlikely while Barry was in office. Sadly, there is a lot of truth in that statement. Especially when you have a president that has now reduced the entire discussion to being one about blackmail. How presidential. Barry said in an interview with U.S. television network CBS (Communist Broadcasting System) that checks to recipients of the Social Security retirement program may not go out in early August if he and congressional leaders do not agree on a debt deal. "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue," Barry said, according to excerpts of the interview released before its broadcast. "Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Barry said. He said veterans checks and disability benefits could also be affected without a deal. What a guy, let's use those who are the most vulnerable in our society in a some sick attempt to force our will and to bring the capitulation from the other side regarding their demands. "Hope and Change?" No, I don't think so.
Despite months of talks, Republican and Democratic leaders have been unable to move past the impasse over a deficit reduction deal that would clear the way for Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans have balked at raising the debt limit without steep spending cuts and are refusing to raise taxes in the current economic environment. Democrats, on the other hand, say new tax revenues will need to be part of any deal that is eventually struck. Actually Democrats really desire is to have a tax hike be the major part of any deal with only minimal cuts, or the cutting around the edges, of our massive entitlement programs. Republicans continue to oppose any increase in taxes which they say would hurt an economy that is struggling. "I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office a real solution is probably unattainable," McConnell said in a hard-hitting speech on the Senate floor. But he said Republicans would ensure the government does not default on August 2, when the Treasury Department has warned it will run out of money to pay the country's bills and all Hell will break loose. I worry when I hear statements like that from Republican "leadership" because it reveals weakness, as well a willingness to cave on the important issue of taxes. Democrats, including Barry, continue to point accusingly at the Republicans as being the responsible party for the continuing impasse, but it is they who stubbornly refuse to do anything more than to raise taxes and slash defense spending to solve the problem. Now there's a plan.
Treasury officials and some private economist have made the claim that failure to seal a deal by August 2 could spook investors, causing U.S. interest rates to surge and stock prices to plummet, and could put the United States at risk of another recession. Another recession, I was unaware that we had crawled out of the first one. So Barry has now decided to threaten senior citizens, an active voting group which Barry apparently intends to be the first to suffer if a deal is not reached. His intention here, I guess, is to give lawmakers a nudge ahead of 2012 elections. Barry's ploy is reminiscent of another instance of political blackmail, a successful one by the way, during the debt limit crisis of 1996 when Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, a Democrat, warned he would not be able to send out Social Security pension checks the next month if the ceiling were not raised. The Republican-controlled House immediately capitulated and voted to allow the government to issue more debt to make those Social Security payments. This time around Republicans must come to realize that surrender is not an option. The stakes are now very much higher than they were in 1996. So I think we can see a bit of trend developing here in that "Slick Willie" employed pretty much the same tactic then and I'm sure Barry is hoping for the same outcome this time around. Republicans will need to stand firm this time around for the good of the country. They must put the future of the country above their own political fortunes. Somebody is going to need to have what's best for the country as their number one priority here. And it damn sure ain't Barry or the Democrats. So that only leaves the Republicans. Are they up to the task? We can only hope!
And really, in all honesty, for Barry to even make the claim that government coffers may be insufficient to send out Social Security checks is more than just a little dishonest on his part. Actually, he's simply lying. Again. What this threat of Barry's should make painfully clear, to even the morons in the crowd, is the fact that what Barry is doing here amounts to nothing more than the playing of politics, and this time around as his favorite weapon of choice seems to be our seniors. What a guy! Barry loves to create these nightmare scenarios through any number of scare tactics, and who better to use them against, this time around, than our senior citizens. So Barry has now come out and said that as much as he would like to guarantee those checks will go out, because of those mean old Republicans there just may not be enough money in the U.S. Treasury to cover them after August 3 if Congress does not agree to lift the legal limit on the federal debt and allow his administration to borrow more money. However, according to the Daily Treasury Statements published by Barry's own U.S. Treasury Department, the ongoing flow of federal tax revenue since the Treasury declared that it had hit the debt limit on May 16 has been more than sufficient to cover the combined costs of federal spending on interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Veterans Affairs department and federal workers wages and insurance benefits (including wages and insurance benefits for military personnel). How about that. So what might Barry be basing such a threat on if not on the pure politics of the issue? To stoop to the scaring of the oldest among us for no other reason than to advance your leftist political agenda is nothing more than blatant abuse of presidential power. It also reveals a very glaring lack of character possessed by the man who is our president.
Specifically, according to the Daily Treasury Statements, as of the close of business on May 16, the federal government had taken in $1.333454 Trillion in tax revenues since the beginning of fiscal 2011. By the close of business on July 7, tax revenues for fiscal 2011 had grown to $1.629630 Trillion. Therefore, between May 16 and July 7 the federal government took in a grand total of $296.176 Billion in new tax revenue. Now, in that same time period, total interest payments on the national debt were equal to $14.632 Billion. Thus, the new tax revenue of $296.176 Billion the federal government took in between May 16 and July 7 was enough to pay the federal government’s $14.632 Billion in interest obligations during that period essentially 20 times over. Also during that same period, the federal government’s combined expenditures for interest payments on the national debt, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Veterans Affairs department and federal workers wages and insurance benefits equaled $270.151 Billion. So I guess I'm having a little difficulty in trying to figure out, exactly, how it is that the coffers may of insufficient funds and therefore prevent the sending out those checks that Barry says may not go out. This guys is such a pathological liar. I can't help but wonder if all those seniors who voted for this guy the first time around will make the same mistake and vote for him next time. I mean, do they enjoy being held hostage by this thug, or used in the way that Barry has chosen to use them? Is it ok with them if in the end they get their monthly checks? Are our old folks now simply for sale to whom ever it is that will keep those checks coming? Don't they have kids and grand kids to worry about and whose futures are being destroyed? I guess we'll find out.
Thus, since hitting the legal limit on the federal debt on May 16, the federal government could have spent its $296.176 Billion in new tax revenues to pay for its combined $270.151 Billion in expenses for interest, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and federal workers wages and insurance benefits and still had $26.025 Billion in additional tax revenue to spend on other government activities. For another $2.198 Billion, for example, the government could have covered all Justice Department programs between May 16 and July 7—thus bringing its surplus revenue for the post-debt-limit period down to $23.827. For another $11.233 Billion, the government could have covered all its Housing and Urban Development programs between May 16 and July 7—thus bringing its surplus revenue for the post-debt-limit period down to $12.594 Billion. For another $6.988 Billion, the government could have covered all its Federal Highway Administration programs between May 16 and July 7—thus bringing it surplus revenue for the post-debt-limit period down to $5.606 Billion. So while Barry and his buddy over at Treasury, Timmy "The Tax Cheat," would like to portray things as being so dire and bordering on being some kind of a crisis, the truth is that things are not nearly as bleak as what these two crooks would all like us all to believe that they are.
Now what the federal government could not have done during that May 16 to July 7 timeframe, using the tax revenue that came in during that period, was pay the interest on the debt, maintain all the big entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security), plus veterans benefits, plus all wages and insurance benefits for federal workers (including military personnel) and paid all the money that the government planned to pay Defense Department vendors. During the period of May 16 to July 7, the government paid $56.734 Billion to Defense vendors, according to the Treasury Department. So if, from May 16 to July 7, the government had added the $56.734 Billion paid to Defense vendors to the $270.151 Billion in combined costs for interest, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and federal workers wages and insurance benefits, the government would have had total costs of $326.885 Billion for the period. Given that it took in $296.176 Billion in tax revenue for the period that would have put the government in the red by $30.709 Billion. Still, $30.709 billion borrowed over a period of 52 days works out to a rate of $590.55 million in borrowing per day--or $188.992 Billion in borrowing per year. That beats what the government is doing now by well over $1 Trillion. According to the latest estimate of the Congressional Budget Office, this year’s deficit will reach $1.399 Trillion.
But like Barry said recently, "We the People" are really just too stupid to fully understand all of the complicated intricacies involved in all this budget stuff, that's why it's best if we simply leave it to all of those geniuses who comprise our "professional politicians" to figure out. RIGHT! Look, our pathetic low life of a president, Barry "Almighty" is playing that part which he loves best, the part of the demagogue. What he is essentially trying to do here is to scare seniors into making panicked phone calls to their congressmen begging them to do whatever Barry and the Democrats want them to do in order to keep the checks coming. This is demagoguery of the worst sort because Barry has to know that what he is saying is false. But when has that ever stopped this sleazy character before? When you and I say something that we know to be false, it's called a "lie." Clearly, it is of little consequence to Barry that hiking taxes and raising the national debt limit will very likely result in insuring that millions of Americans remain unemployed and will hobble the economy for years, perhaps decades, to come. The method to his madness is that all he really needs to do is to scare just enough voters just long enough to get through the November 2012 election to get himself re-elected. GOD FORBID!
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