GOP Intransigence To Stop Social Security Checks ?

It was bad enough when the two political parties, especially the Republicans, were playing chicken with the economy and the credit-worthiness of this country by refusing to deal with raising the nation's debt ceiling. But now it looks like their intransigence may cause millions of elderly Americans to not get their Social Security checks -- checks that are the only way for many of the elderly to pay their rent and buy their groceries.

President Obama told CBS News, speaking of Social Security and other government checks, "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue (raising the debt ceiling). Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." And it doesn't look like the president is making an idle threat just to pressure the Republicans. The Bipartisan Policy Center has analyzed the situation and "determined that the government likely would not have enough revenue to pay the full $23 billion payment to Social Security recipients due on Aug. 3."

You may be wondering why the debt ceiling would affect Social Security. Even those wanting to "fix" Social Security admit it has the funding to make full payments until at least the year 2027. And Social Security does not comes out of the government's discretionary spending, since it is financed by FICA payroll taxes. So why wouldn't the checks come out on time?

The answer is that the government has been "borrowing" money from the Social Security fund for many years now to pay other bills the government owed. They did this so they could brag to the public that they didn't raise taxes (that obviously needed to be raised). Both parties have been doing this "borrowing" from Social Security, and they have always promised to repay the money when it was needed.

Well, it is needed right now, and the Republicans are refusing to repay it. Instead they claim Social Security is in trouble (a lie) and must cut its benefits and raise the retirement age. This is not true. A simple raising of the income cap on FICA taxes (or removing that cap altogether) will solve any fiscal problems Social Security has far into the future. But the Republicans never liked Social Security and want to use the budget deficit to cut it (or even abolish it).

But the Republicans are now playing with fire by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. They got into a barrel full of trouble by trying to abolish Medicare -- and it really didn't stand a chance of actually happening. But refusing to raise the debt ceiling could really delay the Social Security checks that many elderly people depend on each month. And if they think they were hurt by just discussing doing away with Medicare, wait until they see the backlash they get when millions of Americans don't get their government checks.

They can hold the debt ceiling hostage to their callous demands if they want to, but the American people know who is causing the hold-up. And they'll also know who to blame when the checks don't come on time.

Polls have shown the people would like to see the budget cut. But polls have also shown the huge majority of Americans don't want Social Security and Medicare cut, and they do want more taxes on the rich. If those checks don't come on time, the Republicans may well be throwing away any chances they had in the 2012 election.