16 Ways Default Will Totally Screw Americans [View all]

By Dana Liebelson - Oct. 10, 2013



1. Social Security payments will be delayed, possibly cut. According to President Obama, in the event of a default the US government will have no choice but to delay Social Security checks. The government owes $12 billion in Social Security payments on October 23 and an additional $25 billion on November 1. At some point between October 22 and November 1, the BPC predicts that the US government will have exhausted its borrowing power and will either have to start severely delaying its bills or sort through the millions of different payments it makes each month—on everything from national parks to the FBI—to figure out which ones to stop paying. That's when Social Security could see sustained cuts.

2. Federal employees will be screwed…even more. Furloughed federal employees haven't been paid since the government shutdown began on October 1. Congress is unlikely to end the shutdown without raising the debt limit, meaning furloughed staffers would be unlikely to receive paychecks anytime soon.

3. Pay and benefits for military service members and veterans will be delayed, possibly cut. The US government owes $12 billion in pay to active and retired military service members on November 1. Those payments will be delayed if the government runs out of money before then, and potentially cut, depending on which bills the US decides to pay.

4. Medicare and Medicaid checks will be delayed, possibly cut. The US government owes $2 billion in Medicaid payments on October 30 and $18 billion in Medicare payments on November 1. Same deal: If the government runs out of cash before then, payments will be delayed, or put on the chopping block with everything else.

Kept within 4 paragraphs to match DU rules. Much more at the link, showing it will be impossible to recover from default, yet the GOP thinks this is a great idea. They want a civil war, and this is how they want to get one, but many won't survive this. It is a manufactured crisis, there is not country in the world that wants this.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/16-ways-not-raising-debt-ceiling-will-screw-americans

With thanks to Mira who posted the Mother Jones link in GD. You can go to enter that discussion, I added more information:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023834604

I'm not posting to frighten DUers at the BOG, but as information to prepare yourselves for the worst, if it happens. Keep letting your family, friends and neighbors know this is a manufactured crisis by the GOP, and not, as media is still telling them, the fault of Obama, the Democrats or the American people.

They have been calling for a civil war for a long time now. This is their coup coming to pass if we can't stop it happening.

I will add more details in posts below.