If Congress failed to increase the debt limit, a broad range of government payments would have to be stopped, limited or delayed, including military salaries and retirement benefits, Social Security and Medicare payments, interest on the debt, unemployment benefits and tax refunds.Of course, most Americans receive not a penny from any of these government spending programs, which means only a minority of Americans would suffer directly from the cuts Sec Geithner says would be necessary.
Here is my question: Is the populist majority in America, which enjoys the lion's share of government entitlements, heading for a political collision with a true majority of the nation's voters who could care less about government entitlements at this point?
Source: Indiviglio, D (2011, April 22), Will the US Really Default in May if the Debt Ceiling Isn't Raised? Atlantic.
2 comments:
I think it's not true that the majority of American people don't care about supporting these entitlements. They either will receive them someday (SS), or they know someone who depends on them now, especially in today's economy. Most Americans are not dumb enough or selfish enough to shut out fellow Americans in need. That's what makes America strong. We care for one another, and take the long view that those in need now may make major contributions later. Hopefully we'll start taxing the corporations that currently pay little or no taxes, instead of trying to hurt the little guys.
I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I'm a lower middle class American and at the dinner table (that seems to have become part of the meat/potatoes of our lexicon!), when we talk about how much we owe on our credit cards, we say we'll only increase the credit line (debt ceiling) if we we have a CONCRETE plan to spend less.
Kind of like addiction recovery; you can stop abusing the substance, but, it you continue to 'hang out with the same crowd' and engage in the same behaviors, you won't be sober for long.
Taxing the middle class more when they're squeezed enough and barely have breathing room? Heck no, raise the taxes to get us out of debt? What kind of answer is that to raise taxes on the 'backs of the middle class?' Yes, there are 49% who pay no taxes, but the rest of the taxpayers are SERIOUSLY HURTING with as the amount of private sector jobs created, dropped last month and only 36K+ were created; that's about half of the number of people who can fit in a average football stadium,
Post a Comment