President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.
"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.
Mr. Obama told Pelley "this is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veterans checks, these are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out."
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
The heat is being turned up...it certainly sounds like positions on both sides are hardening. We will see if it is kabuki or if things are indeed deteriorating. I don't have a ton of time, so I just wanted to get this out there for discussion if the community chooses to do so.
As a quick side note, Jay Carney also stated in today's briefing the it is "safe to assume" that the reports in the media about entitlement reforms in the media have been generally accurate, while being unwilling to state them on the record. There are more than enough diaries available for a discussion of the rationale and impact of those offers, so I won't go any further.