We’re now only seven days away from doomsday, or so you have been repeatedly told by CNN, the New York Times and most other liberal outlets. If Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden can’t come to an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, America will effectively cease to exist as a nation. In reality, of course, almost nothing will happen on June 1st. The Treasury will shuffle some things around like they always do and possibly be late on a few payments, needing to make up for that later. And there’s always still the possibility of a shorter, stopgap spending bill being passed at the last moment. But that’s not stopping media outlets like the Associated Press from finding people to interview who are waiting for the sky to fall and “making default contingency plans.” They begin with a retired woman from Arizona who is baking in the desert heat because she’s cutting back on using her air conditioner in case she doesn’t get her Social Security check next month.
Phoenix retiree Saundra Cole has been watching the news about the debt limit negotiations in Washington with dismay — and limiting her air conditioning use to save money just in case her monthly Social Security check is delayed due to a default.
For her, air conditioning is no small thing in a city where the average daily high hits 94 degrees in May. If the government can’t make good on its obligations, she says, “I would be devastated.”
“What I’m worried about is food banks and electricity here because you know, we’ve had deaths with seniors because of the heat,” says Cole.
Did you catch that? Helpless senior citizens will literally be dropping dead from the heat and it will be all Kevin McCarthy’s fault!
The article goes on to mention unnamed groups around the country who rely on state and federal subsidies. They are now bracing for “the possibility of massive and immediate cuts.” Janet Yellen is quoted as saying that a default will “destroy jobs and businesses.” And, of course, military families and veterans will go unpaid.
It’s true that, at least in theory, if the United States fully defaulted and simply stopped paying its debts, all of those things would wind up happening. But I don’t know a single serious person who believes that’s even possible. The swamp creatures in Washington are playing out the same drama that they perform year after year. The roles are reversed sometimes depending on who is in power, but it’s the same game.
In terms of the first bits of budget trimming and potential missed payments, Social Security is about as far away from the chopping block as it’s possible to be. Even if Yellen has to make a few cuts, the last thing the Washington elite are going to do is tick off senior citizens who are the most likely to vote and will be the first to hold everyone in the swamp accountable if their payments fail to arrive.
Still, the AP dutifully reminds us that, according to the Census Bureau, more than one-third of U.S. households include someone receiving Social Security benefits and/or Medicaid benefits. I’m sure that’s true, but I’m equally confident that none of them have much to worry about in the month of June.
The reality is that Joe Biden already has a viable option on the table. The House already passed a deal that would keep everything on track. The President may not like it, and the Senate Democrats will pitch a fit, but the reality is impossible to ignore. If the Treasury Department starts missing some payments this summer and they’re looking for someone to blame, they only need to look in the mirror. They’ll try to blame McCarthy and company anyway of course, but I’m increasingly confident that a dismayed American public that feels Biden has botched the economy by record margins is reaching the point where they can see what’s going on and where the real finger of blame needs to be pointing.
