GOP Wants to Pay China Before Social Security Recipients

[jtown1123]

GOP intros bills to "Pay China First" before Soc. Sec. recipients
by Eclectablog
Mon Jan 31, 2011 at 09:02:09 AM PST

You might think the GOP hates the poor and the elderly and, really, all of those that rely on entitlement payments of one sort or another. But I'll bet you didn't know how much they hate them.

They hate them enough to introduce a bill that prioritizes paying off our debt to China over their monthly checks.

That's right. Congressman Tom McClintock of California has introduced H.R. 421 – "To require that the Government prioritize all obligations on the debt held by the public in the event that the debt limit is reached." This bill would prioritize payments to China and our other creditors over our own citizens should Congress not raise the debt ceiling.

The Rest: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/31/940184/-GOP-intros-bills-to-Pay-China-First-before-Soc.-Sec.-recipients

[Statistical]

1. Largest holder of US debt is SSA Trust not China.

All ebil foreigners only own roughly 25% of US Treasury debt combined.
China the largest foreign owner only owns roughly 5% of our debt.

three quarters of all US federal debt is owned by Americans.
The largest single entity holding federal debt is the SSA with $2.5 trillion.
Pension funds and life insurance companies also hold a significant portion of public debt.

[jtown1123]

2. It's just infuriating that they "borrowed it." Greenspan is a crook.

[BigD_95]

45. Do you have a link to that info? thanks

[tabatha]

3. So patriotic !!

:sarcasm:

[aggiesal]

50. Don't you mean, "So Parasitic !!" n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Oh, fuck them.

Some days I really wonder just how can we hurt them?

God damn it.

Infuriating.

:mad:

[RKP5637]

22. +1, n/t

[notesdev]

5. The doctrine of Odious Debt

learn it

love it

free yourself

free your children

and tell the debt slavers to go to hell

[madmom]

6. How about we lose the tax break for the rich and use that to pay China, since they

are the ones benefiting the most from the borrowed money.

[KansDem]

10. What you said (x) 11.9 trillion...

...or whatever the debt is at the moment.

[AlbertCat]

46. How about we lose the tax break for the rich and use that to pay China,

Ka-Ching!

A winner!

[liberal N proud]

7. More rhetoric driven at killing Social Security

[dmallind]

8. Funnily enough it's exactly the opposite

Since the SS trustees own about 3.3 times the amount of US debt China does (under 6%) and Americans in toto own ten to twelve times as much.

I have no idea why so many people believe China holds a significant amount of our debt. This would be like a sensible household budgeting to pay their debts first before eating out being described as "pay Exxon first before your mortgage company" when they owe a few hundred dollars on the gas card and many thousands on the mortgage, and intend to pay down all debt as a priority.

[KansDem]

9. Is this some kind of blackmail?

"To require that the Government prioritize all obligations on the debt held by the public in the event that the debt limit is reached."

Sounds like the GOP is between a rock and a hard place. After preaching how they are the "Party of Fiscal Responsibility," and bitching about government spending, it looks like they know they will have to raise the debt ceiling, or have another government-shutdown fiasco on their hands.

I wondering if this will "get them off the hook" after enough Americans complain to their "Corpgress" representative that they'll have to raise the ceiling by saying "Well, we didn't want to do it, but all of you Americans were complaining about your Social Security, so..."

[The Second Stone]

11. I say let them vote on this bill

Ordinarily posturing of this kind would be killed in committee with nobody ever getting another word in. But the outright hostility of the GOP to the social security program, which funds our government and their pay packages has been going on for over 70 years. It is important to get them on record showing how much they despise paying bills that they owe.

[csziggy]

53. That would be a good idea IF the media would inform the public of what it is

Instead of ignoring the crap the GOP puts in that hurts the average person in this country, or spinning their propaganda so the workers think this is good for them, not terrible.

[raouldukelives]

12. They wouldn't want to anger the leaders they follow

Angering Americans on the other hand doesn't bother them.

[Faryn Balyncd]

13. This should be an ALBATROSS for the GOP...The bonds held by the SS Trust are EQUAL to all bonds held

....by ANY bondholder, whether that bondholder is a Wall Street mutual fund, an American bank, a foreign government, or an American citizen.....

Yet the GOP is advocating a SELECTIVE DEFAULT to the Social Security Trust Fund, whose claims, based upon funds the Trust Fund LOANED to the general fund (allowing the income tax rates to the wealthy to be CUT in the face of simultaneous wars and corporate welfare) are (according to the GOP, inferior to the claims of Chinese creditors.

The reality is that the SS Trust Fund has sufficient accumulated surplus to pay ALL BENEFICIARIES IN FULL without any changes whatsoever, until 2037.

The bonds held by the SS Trust Fund are backed by the full faith & credit of the United States.

The un-American, anti-citizen position of the GOP should be broadcast 24/7 to all voters.





:kick:





:kick:

[jtown1123]

14. Yes, this needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

[EFerrari]

15. K&R

[malaise]

16. What I can't understand is why people don't point out that

people have paid their money year after year - it's not a loan. They are thieves and raiders of public money.

[Faryn Balyncd]

21. This is the #1 issue of the year....And we must FORCE the media to cover it.

:hi:



:kick:

[Blue_Tires]

29. +1

[elehhhhna]

31. We paid our own AND our Grandparent's SSI (they collected but didn't pay in in many cases)

WShen will the media point THAT out? Uh...never.

[avaistheone1]

36. *True*

You are correct. I try to point out that fact whenever the opportunity presents itself.


http://www.newschief.com/article/20100710/NEWS/7105014/1013/opinion?p=all&tc=pgall

[AlbertCat]

47. I try to point out that fact whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I've never had an opportunity.

I never meet of hear people, Right or Left, who want to get rid of SS .... except on the TV. I've never had to argue with a real, everyday person out SS needing to go. Only those in the government/pundit netherworld bring up such issues.

[bvar22]

32. That is the job of the Democratic Party Leadership.

Instead, all we hear from our "leadership" is how the Republicans have a lot of good ideas, and we need to work with them.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans."
---Paul Wellstone

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. We will get here

Even this perhaps...



But this is what happens when you keep pushing a people... it will come here too. We are not hungry or desperate enough YET.

[derby378]

18. Obama chose the wrong people to compromise with

It cost him dearly in November 2010 - but not as bad as it's gonna cost us.

[Bluebear]

52. You said it. nt

[grahamhgreen]

19. K&R

[Citizen Worker]

20. "...all of those that rely on entitlement payments..." Social Security is NOT an entitlement. It

is an insurance program supported by premiums half of which are paid by the employer and half by the worker.

[RKP5637]

23. +1, n/t

[Thav]

43. If they want to use the entitlement language

why not go after such entitlements as ag subsidies, oil subisides, and other commercial subsidies which fall under the "entitlement" umbrella? Oh wait, that'd be "bad for business."

[yodermon]

24. Doesn't this "Question" the validity of the public debt,

thus violating the 14th amendment, section 4 ?

[RainDog]

25. the GOP HATES AMERICANS!

and, I hope, more and more Americans come to hate the GOP.

[jtown1123]

35. This is a great sound bite for us. Republicans use false ones all the time, this one is true!

[BobbyBoring]

44. Unfortunatly

The truth doesn't matter much anymore~

[avaistheone1]

26. omg

the republicans are truly evil.

[Little Star]

27. SS is not a friggin entitlement!!! k&r

[Poboy]

28. recommend

[Festivito]

30. Slowly dismantling the "full faith and credit" of the United States...

...on the backs of those who need it most, the least of these among us.

Making China look just as inhumane as ourselves.

[LiberalEsto]

33. GOP should move to China

Ta-ta!

[jtown1123]

34. Yes, since they love it so much.

[RedCloud]

49. Don't you agree that China is better than America? They make our flags!

They have minimum wage mastered. And the crap they make is so bad you have to keep returning it or burning it. Waste is God, er, good!

[socialist_n_TN]

37. Surprised? Is anybody surprised? REALLY surprised?

I think not. I expected this from the Rethugs. Now, what are the Dems going to do about it?

[jtown1123]

38. Dems should pound them with this. I am pretty sure Schumer already is.

[rgbecker]

39. The radicals are setting up for defeat of raising the debt ceiling.

This way, when they refuse to raise the debt ceiling in March, they can say they are protecting the creditors and hopefully keep the world from running from the dollar....which of course would be the end of the world as we know it. Egypt would look like a picnic in comparison to what it would look like world wide. Either way, until the US economy is back on its feet, any limit to taking on debt will surely bring out the folks as the checks stop showing up.

[defendandprotect]

40. Well, we have to support the Chinese military and make sure they have weapons--!!

[Fuddnik]

41. How's about we quit paying GOP salaries, pensions, and healthcare?

Before we cut anything else?

[perdita9]

42. Pat Toomey's introduced the same thing in the Senate

S.B. 163 will effectively put China first for any and all payments, reducing American citizens to second class status.

I guess my fellow PA citizens deserve this -- they voted this idiot into office in the first place.

[JDPriestly]

48. What an idiot!!!!!

Tom McClintock is about the stupidest person there could possibly be. He has no political future. How in the world has he ever won an election in the first place.

Are we now the slaves of China?

How can McClintock prefer the Chinese to American senior citizens.

When the whole housing and mortgage crisis began, I figured that the Chinese were behind it. I remember that it really reached a tipping point in 2008 after a meeting between someone from China and one of our financial leaders.

The Chinese are the only winners in the economic downturn now. Why in the world to we buy so much from them?

We should put import taxes on the stuff we buy from China and pay back our debts out of that revenue.

[Historic NY]

51. Chine gets the US jobs and now the US cash .

[BrklynLiberal]

54. knr

[pam4water]

55. F THE GOP F THE GOP F THE GOP F THE GOP F THE GOP F THE GOP ... Kick