Topic: Political and Social Extortion

[Nichi]

Obama has come out with a threat of 2 weeks' notice - no doubt to pressure the powers-that-be into doing what he wants them to do. The threat is that there will be no retirement, veterans', or disability checks if things do not go as he is asking. I don't post to discuss the validity of what he's saying - rather, I'm looking at the effect of what he's saying on the people.

I sense strongly that there will be a movement and trend towards suicide. If one only gets 2 weeks' notice that they now have no money, what about the future? This is money that the culture has grown up all their lives depending upon. Maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong - that's not the point. The point is that it is.

So, when it comes out that this is a ploy, but word didn't get to suicide-ing, old Lillian Johnson in the Okeefenokee Swamp that it's just a game, I do hope her relatives sue Barack Obama for all he's worth.

Of course, maybe it's not a game, in which case, the "death chambers" Sarah Palin irresponsibly described just might become a grim reality.

Obama ‘cannot guarantee’ benefits checks will be paid if debt deal isn’t reached
By Holly Bailey | The Ticket – 4 hrs ago

President Obama warned Tuesday that retirees might not receive their Social Security checks next month if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on how to reduce the federal debt.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on Aug. 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's Scott Pelley in an interview set to air tonight on the CBS Evening News.

Roughly $20 billion in Social Security checks are set to be mailed out on Aug. 3--a day after the Treasury Department says the U.S. will begin defaulting on its financial obligations unless the debt ceiling is raised.

But the president cautioned that it's more than just Social Security checks that could be affected. "These are veterans' checks. These are folks on disability," Obama said, according to excerpts released by CBS News. "There are about 70 million checks that go out."

You can watch an excerpt of the interview here, courtesy CBS News.

The president's comments come a day after he warned of dire financial consequences should Republicans and Democrats fail to come to an agreement on raising the debt ceiling and paying down the deficit. In a press conference yesterday, Obama said if Republicans fail to compromise on a debt deal that it could "throw millions of more people out of work."

Obama and congressional leaders are set to meet again later today as the two sides continue to bicker over the debt ceiling and how to shore up the nation's dire fiscal state. The White House is pressing for an agreement by July 22nd--a little over a week before Aug. 2, the date when Treasury officials say the U.S. will hit its debt limit.

The president said Monday he wants a large scale agreement that will tackle both the debt ceiling and deficit reduction until after the 2012 elections. He insisted he will veto any short-term, stop-gap measure aimed at continuing the debate. But Republicans have signaled they won't accept a deal that could result in a tax increase and are now pressing for either a smaller agreement, focusing just on the debt ceiling, or a measure that possibly includes the repeal of Obama's health care plan.

On Tuesday, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said he believes it's unlikely a deal to fix to the nation's deficit problems will be reached until Obama leaves office because the administration has expressed a "fundamental unwillingness" to agree to major spending cuts.

"After years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable," McConnell said in a Senate floor speech.

[Michael]

I have been following this. There are some good articles on Salon.com but of course this is big news across the world coming on top of all the troubles in Europe.

It seems that situation is that the Republicans can't do a deal with the Democrats to pass raising the debt limit, because the Tea Party is causing havoc within the Republicans.

The Tea Party are demanding severe cuts to all welfare programs, and no increasing of taxes on the wealthy (which is why the corporate jets became an issue). Obama shocked many by offering to agree to cuts to Medicare and something else. This is a case of Obama agreeing with the Republican agenda, instead of stating right out that funding cuts are not the answer to the the US's problems, and are likely to make the situation far worse. This is a big economist's debate.

The other thing is that it is actually against the US constitution for the the Republicans to stop the US paying its debts, but Obama is keeping quiet on that, while trying to get some agreement. Unfortunately every deal is shot down by the Tea Party, who I suspect, see a political opportunity - they want the US to default, then to blame Obama.

No one knows what will happen is the US defaults, and there may be measures to avoid that, but if it does, general consensus is that it will tip the global economy into a second recession.

The Republicans are playing politics, but manoeuvring Obama into being dammed for agreeing to severe social program cuts (which will affect the poor, who are not Republican voters), or by denying any deal, causing a default, and thus hoping everyone will blame Obama as the President for the consequences.

How the Republicans can play dice with millions of people's lives for their own power ambitions, is beyond me. Something similar, though not as serious, is happening in Aust.

Here is one such article from Salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/news/budget_showdown/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2011/07/12/a_translation_guide_for_kooky_gop_debt_ceiling_rhetoric