Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government

Source: Washington Post

The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government loses its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has warned for months that the government would soon hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much it can borrow. With the government poised to reach that limit Monday, Geithner is undertaking special measures in an effort to postpone the day when he will no longer have enough funds to pay all of the government’s bills.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/treasury-to-tap-pensions-to-help-fund-government/2011/05/15/AF2fqK4G_story.html?wpisrc=nl_wonk

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The U.S reaches the debt limit. They're using your pension to keep the U.S. afloat now. Yet another of many ways I'm glad I'm Canadian.

Then they came for the federal pensions and I said nothing because I wasn't a federal employee. Then they came for Medicare and I said nothing because I had health insurance. Then I turned 65 and I was insolvent and without health insurance and nobody spoke up for me.

The article specifically cites "The Obama Administration".

No, it's all Obama's fault for trying to keep the dollar from collapsing just the fat cats have been engineering. Remember, they took their money and our jobs offshore. Y

up, blame Obama for that. It's amazing how one man can destroy the whole system the GOP fought like cats and dogs to eliminate every protection to keep this from happening since the days the FDR administration and blamed him for everything in the world.

There is no history of any of that. Nothing to see here, move along.

Let the dollar collapse. The GOP is going to have a hell of a time justifying their "fiscal responsibility" come election time when Americans are paying $15 a gallon for gas.

He just gave them more time to play the game.

The 'let god sort 'em out' is a GOP meme, not a Democratic one. We end up cleaning the mess left after their shooting spree is over.

We're screwed anyway. The Democrats will eventually cave to Republican demands for massive cuts, in which case WE LOSE ANYWAY. The poor go hungry, the elderly lose their healthcare, and children lose their educations. Oh, and the Republicans score a win, shoring up support from their teabagger base and guaranteeing that they get to stick around for another election cycle.

Let the dollar fall, and the corporations will scream bloody murder. The Republicans will backpedal so fast you'll think they're running in the Amgen. The American people, when gas prices double overnight, will all but stage a rebellion. People will get pretty pissed off when they can't afford to drive to work anymore. The Republicans will end up looking like idiots who put political grandstanding above the well being of the American people. The teabagger political philosophy will be blasted in all political circles.

And you're worried about savings accounts?

Rebellion won't be carried out by the ones hurt the most and those able to get into the streets will not be attacking the rich. They have the money to protect themselves, it is the ones you may be claiming to represent who will die.

There is no Bastille to storm, the money is offshore. Those who live on these shores have their private security to protect them and plenty more in law enforcment.

The ones you will do all of this cool killing, will be goaded on by the conservatives, paid by them, to kill those who are considered liberal or progressive, or a burden.

Chaos never ends in democracy or equality, except the equality of death and that won't touch these bastards, either. Destroy the government and fascism steps in to take its place. It's already doing so right now, as you say, and it's galloping now.

Because people calling for the last resort because it feels so good for a while, but haven't considered the history of it. The rich win by chaos, they always have. That's what you're arguing for here, not the humiliating job of making things work. Arrogance does not serve the workers.

It's easy to sit at the keyboard and call for havoc, when you don't work with the ones who are going to die, whose faces you know.

EOD.

Not I. Read it again.

I'm tired of flip statements people, freeper trolls apparently, to just let everything go to hell, Obama bashing as if he's god.

The teabaggers have been preparing for armed rebellion with their militant, shut the government down, my guns everywhere crap.

So maybe I overreacted to you. But I'm pissed, just as intended.

Go in peace, even though we don't agree on some things.

What I said: "The American people, when gas prices double overnight, will all but stage a rebellion."

"All but" = "almost". I said nothing about actual fighting, or wanting to see a rebellion. Besides, the rebellion I was referring to was political, not military. I happen to believe that there are certain government actions that DO justify armed rebellion, but we're nowhere close to any of those. I'm more of a "block the freeway and shut down commerce" type. :)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/all%2Bbut

And yes, this is a game...to the Republicans. It's their game, and we shouldn't be playing it.

I'm sorry, but I'm a man of economics. It's my college major and I can't get away from it. It's what I was taught.


NOW he wants to drill for oil. It was his position not to open land to more drilling earlier.
NOW he wants to open the strategic petroleum reserves to lower prices. Well, is it a supply and demand problem or not?


Watch. You decide for yourself and tell me cuz I'm getting a headache at this point.

32 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSZ62xiD4M

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Just so you know..when oil companies drill on American soil, or in our waters, we don't have any special rights to the oil! It goes to the highest bidder. So your argument about allowing more drilling doesn't mean we get cheaper gas.

as if they owe the U.S. nothing.

We had a strong dollar policy, until Failure-in-Chief Bush was in office. That's when the dollar started it long slow slide.

Cheney put his money in Euros a long time ago, since he knew and planned with his buddies, to make sure the dollar tanked. The Iraq war was the biggest money laundering operation in the history of the planet. They infected the people with fear and hatred, then paid their friends money stolen from generations of Americans.

While they live it up abroad, we're devouring our own here. Makes you wonder who has the real moral superiority in the end. If we stood up for each other unequivocally, just the way they do for each other, we would be unstoppable.

the limit under rethug presidents because they do not want the blame. Now they have the chance to create another disaster so when the American people panic they can use the situation to further privatize government services. Milton Friedman wins again.


See Naomi - I did learn from your book and I am only on Part I. The world had better be learning or the corporations will be the only thing there is other than us peons.

Of course they will not pay it back... the entire federal budget is simply promises and IOU's.

Here is a warning to us all. The Argentine state is taking control of the country’s privately-managed pension funds in a drastic move to raise cash.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/5504137/Argentina_seizes_pension_funds_to_pay_debts_Whos_next/

Big time.

We would like to thank you for your sacrifice. Now, could you please fucking die?


/sarcasm

I think that the 'public', that is, We, the People, should form a bank to monitor this borrowing. Because, in essence, the borrower is writing their own loan note, which sucks for We, the People.

Don't bank on me!

...based on lies to benefit the "oil"igarchy.

And tax the fucking rich!

How difficult is it to figure this out?

return to 1990s tax rates =




And where was all this debt "concern" when Reagan and the Bushes added $8 trillion to the federal debt?

:shrug:

SOS for POTUS!!!

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it creates "money" for the investor which is wealth taken out of the small business.

Wealth is created by Value Added labor or services.

Man, I haven't heard these canards since the 1980s when Reaganites used them to convince us that "trickle down" would bolster the economy.

We were told "Give the rich tax breaks and they'll invest in the USA" -- it didn't work, did it?
We were told "Give more money to the wealthy and that'll create more jobs" -- it didn't work, did it?

For 30 years now the wealthy have taken their "tax cuts" and invested...in foreign countries and foreign companies.
Or they socked it away in offshore tax havens (UBS Bank in Switzerland alone has 54,000 secret American accounts).

Don't give me this "try getting a job from a poor man" bullshit! If the wealthy had their way, we'd all be "poor men."

I want my money back! That's right, the tax cuts and subsidies they wealthy have taken from me for 30 years. They were suppose to invest in the USA and they didn't. They didn't uphold their end of the bargain. They didn't abide by their terms of the agreement. Now I want my money back.

There are people working hard on this now:

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70

Forbes magazine said of 'The People's Budget'

"Instead of gutting programs for the poor like Medicaid and Medicare, food stamps, and the new healthcare law, the People’s Budget focuses on cuts in defense. It also doesn’t scrap new financial regulations designed to at least partly stave off another massive financial collapse like the one that put us in this mess in the first place."

We've got to be honest here, a lot of our problems are coming from Blue Dog DINOs.

They are simply responding to their constituents, the ones who are raising hell from the local school and on up. The GOP are not attacking any of their messengers on the far right and their voters support them, they don't nitpick. Who is the more powerful political force that they must listen to?

I wish this got more buzz.

Demand a better alternative than all this extortion going on now. That is only way to shut these nihilists down.

2010 defense budget: $663 billion
2010 budget deficit: $1.342 trillion

Eliminating all defense spending would only account for half of last year's deficit.

And then what do we do with the 700,000 government employees and 1.4 million servicemembers suddenly unemployed?

Edit:
Auto spell got me

If they had the money to pay it back they wouldn't need to "borrow" it.

Face it, it's gone.

Much of which borrowed against Social Security?

Yeah, that'll get paid back. Sure.

the right wingers and many Dems are trying to screw us. Legality is a fluid thing apparently.

generally have a habit of losing the money on its way back ... and give you some IOUs, and have faith in the US's ability to pay it back, as the debt increases. But the MIC will profit and wars will continue. Too many make money off the loses of others. And then we also have the psychopathic element to some politicians now and throughout history.

Can I use it??!! :rofl:

I don't trust these snakes.

Why can't he let the Repukes be the sole owners of the "kill Granny" movement?

There are people working hard on this now. Unfortunately Obama doesn't have the numbers to get this enacted:

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70

Forbes magazine said of this:

"Instead of gutting programs for the poor like Medicaid and Medicare, food stamps, and the new healthcare law, the People’s Budget focuses on cuts in defense. It also doesn’t scrap new financial regulations designed to at least partly stave off another massive financial collapse like the one that put us in this mess in the first place."

And what is taking the pensions, if not "Kill granny"? What if they use the pension funds up and the teabaggers still don't budge?

He should score political points to kill off the teabaggers next year, or at least render them marginal. These people are savages, and getting rid of them is crucial for salvaging what's left of the US

You seem unclear on this point. The Repubs do not sign the checks that keep the federal government going; Obama's administration does. It's the Republicans who have cut off the money needed for the checks to clear, and who are trying to force Obama to find the money somewhere else (or to slash government spending).

Yes, they're savages; but that's because it's not them who needs to find the money.

It's not rocket surgery.

Well, if they wanted to radicalize me, it's working. Play by the rules your whole life and get it stuck up your ass after you can no longer work. Nice.

do all of the "right" things in life. There are millions and millions in this boat anymore and growing.

to get attention, and you can be confident its readership won't let this go.

'The measure won’t have an impact on retirees because the Treasury is legally required to reimburse the program.'

P.S., I am a Federal retiree.

:hi:

stimulate the economy. Cutting spending does not stimulate the economy. Creating jobs and demand for goods and services stimulates the economy. Raising taxes on the surplus income of upper income brackets and redistributing the money through government spending stimulates the economy. It's time to call these Republican bastards on their threat to ruin the country. The aim to do it anyway. Now is better than later.

It has always been a sham.

End it now!!!

Higher tax brackets actually encourages more investment. Were there a 100% bracket, I guarantee I would invest every penny I made in that bracket rather than surrending the entire amount to the government.

But then, I actually write off investment on my taxes. Apparently, Republicans have never heard of that little trick when they make the ridiculous argument that higher taxes will take money away from private investment.

Seriously though, I used to argue with a Republican apartment building owner about taxes. I used to suggest that if he was paying as much in taxes as he claimed, then maybe he just needed a new tax lawyer. Then I bought an apartment building myself. First year, I did my taxes then went to have his lawyer doublecheck my figures. He got it wrong (to my cost). Twice. On the third try he admitted that I had it correct all the time.

I thought I was joking when I suggested he get a new lawyer. Turns out his tax lawyer did suck. So maybe Republicans just hire bad accountants?

from the lower socioeconomic brackets.

for the past 10 years?

How about tapping current salaries of Congress since they can't seem to do their jobs?

(besides, they're all independently wealthy anyway)

But if they spend mine I'm going to be seriously pissed!

Wouldn't want that touched. Oh no.

Now they need another credit card.

Thanks for nothing.

Extending W tax cuts for the wealthy and now this?

FUCK

All they have to do is keep saying NO and they win.

The mess that results from their refusal will be blamed on Obama.
The Mighty Slime Machine (MSM) will make sure of that.

Think Meredith Viera sitting with a big fat smile while Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claims that the President was born in Kenya.

Being Republican means being able to lie with impunity while the media sits there like a dumb ass nodding along.

...Can you imagine the percentage of people who are willing to believe something that is a little more debatable than birtherism.

I don't quite see why you call me a liar when you seem to agree with me
that the Repigs control the MSM and the stoopid people believe pretty much anything it says.

The 2010 elections pretty well proved that unpleasant fact as well.

What they didn't say, but implied, were welfare queens in ERs, how they and their kids were paying for it, and how their taxes were going to be raised for this and that and on and on. Even this morning the GOP media mantra on not extending the Bush taxes was called raising taxes! The media has certainly done the brainwashing it was paid to do. The GOP spin cycle remains on.

When they're not lying and laughing like hyenas, that is.

Ellison Stumps Republican On House Floor By Asking Him When Paul Ryan's Plan Would Balance The Budget

April 15, 2011

This morning, the House debated the budget proposal put forth by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a response to the budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). During the debate, CPC member Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) asked Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) when the Ryan budget would balance and create a surplus. After hemming and hawing for a few seconds, Rokita ultimately couldn’t come up with an answer:

ELLISON: When does the Ryan budget create a surplus?

ROKITA: The budget proposed and voted on by the committee — <...>

ROKITA: With responsible, gradual reforms to the drivers of our debt, like Medicare and Social Security, this budget will balance –

ELLISON: I asked the gentlemen when the Ryan budget created a surplus. He could have given me a year. He didn’t. That’s because he’s probably embarrassed about when that is. Let me tell you when the Progressive Caucus comes to surplus: 2021. That is known as a responsible budget.

Watch it:

The answer to the question is that the “courageous” and “innovative” Ryan budget would create a surplus for the first time in 2040, according to the Congressional Budget Office. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, meanwhile, determined that the CPC budget would indeed turn a $30.7 billion surplus in 2021, nearly two full decades ahead of Ryan’s “bold” plan.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49§iontree=6,49&itemid=306

Most of the public doesn't even know this group exists, not even most Democrats, or if they were serious about doing anything except playing the role of Democratic Tea Partiers, they'd be active in presenting that budget here and elsewhere.

We wouldn't be having this discussion if people had not left it all on Obama's shoulders to deal with a hostile GOP majority, mainly created by the same media the GOP owns.

I'm P.O.'d and not at Obama, but at the GOP and those who buy their media's lies. They make progressives have those satisfying feel good moments by throwing us crumbs to make us feel listened to, when they have eliminated any serious discussion that doesn't fit their fascist model.

speed as the months and years roll by. Hyperinflation followed by massive deflationary depression or debt default leading to the same, pick your poison, pick your form of collapse.

It's been baked in the cake since December 1913. The systemic controllers are nothing if not chillingly patient and grindingly methodical, as they gain power and wealth in almost all scenarios due to a forced false-choice paradigm of their own making.

...Republicans will have the upper hand. Are the Republicans getting any blow back for standing up for oil companies subsidies?

You got yours!

None of it was ever paid back

Since the answer to "Are they talking about abolishing it?" or "Is it anywhere near bankrupt?" is no to both, maybe that is the best way to figure that out.

but yes:

Provinces will be able to borrow from the Canada Pension Plan. The amount will be limited to the proportion of provincial bonds held by other pension funds. The provinces will pay the same interest rate as they do on their other loans.

Whereas US Social Security has never been paid back, let alone with interest, and is essentially gone.

This is the end result

Still we have alleged Democrats on the board calling not extending them raising taxes, just as the GOP does. While Obama was fighting to keep the tax rates low on the ones that the GOP calls worthless. We either have some media-brainwashed Democrats here, or another infestation of trolls from Freeperville.

PB

People instead of the MIC, corporations and billionaires.

easier than stopping the wars. I guess we should be thankful that we got a kiss while we got fucked.

the debt ceiling process up, he should "borrow" from the Congressional pension fund. We all know that their benefits ARE exorbitant and better packages can not be found in other professions. One term members get lifetime retirement pay almost equal to(or higher?) the salary they were paid (not usually earned) when in office. ONE TERM CONGRESS PEOPLE ! Those who stay on the public and private teat for many terms, are paid retirement amounts higher than their salaries....

THEY along with the TOP 5% ARE A BIG REASON WE ARE GOING BROKE. It is not the average taxpayer who is paid below poverty level retirement benefits (they will never get back what they (we) have paid in) for the remainder of their usually short lives.
It was Patriotic when Ike, Nixon, etc...progressively taxed the wealthy.....why not NOW? Because the wealthy have taken over our government.

(like the military) will be having is brought to them by the (R)'s. The Dems are so willing to provide the (R)'s cover and this confuses the middle class and working poor.

As Nadar says ... Let the (R)'s show their fangs.

this administration will steal from every class, except the rich.

'begin to tap federal retiree programs'

'The measure won’t have an impact on retirees because the Treasury is legally required to reimburse the program.'

then it's all good.:shrug:





Oh wait, they didn't.

:sarcasm:

it back. And of course the Democrats will make sure they do.
:sarcasm:

Many People including me think this is the sweet spot to start drastic cuts...
You could easily cut 80% of the DEA as this is the same percentage used for Cannabis elimination and prosecutions...
http://www.justice.gov/dea/agency/staffing.htm

but stealing and corruption has to STOP

Rise up people Rise up

after our pensions then do we go to our assets too

We see the effects of the corruption of Bush and Cheney and Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

and what did we get for it

Bankruptcy Osama's prediction was Bush's minion

the government needs to be replaced ...it is corrupt in both parties

if several hundred AM radio stations were suddenly not broadcasting any more, things would begin to change.

for trademarking Seal Team Six?

The Republicans are threatening to cause a world wide Depression if they don't get what they want.

They are essentially holding a gun to the head of everybody on the planet.

If the government cannot pay its creditors there will be an economic collapse of biblical proportions. It would make the last 4 years look like the roaring twenties in comparison.

It means most banks and companies going under. You and I with no job... not having any money to buy food or pay your rent or mortgage. Or, if you have money, you still can't afford the price of food and housing because prices will increase by hundreds of percentage points.

It means most Americans out on the street and starving to death.

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/so-what-happens-if-the-united-states-goes-into-default

The Republicans are threatening to cause a world wide Depression if they don't get what they want.

They are essentially holding a gun to the head of everybody on the planet.



So that's 300 hundred-odd psychopaths against the 7 billion people of the world. If we would fight back, the battle would be over in less than an hour.

going WITH the GOP GUARANTEES the threatened even HAPPENS.........so if we go along WITH the GOP it WILL create a WORLD-WIDE DEPRESSION.

We can let the dollar fall and have an inflation that will destroy not only the American people but the ability of our country to defend itself in the world.-- It will make us unsafe.

Or we return to the tax rates for the rich that we had in more prosperous times.

Which will it be?

The Republicans have to grow up and make the decision that is best for America. So far their decisions have only benefited the Cayman Islands.

Good observation, however shrub sr. lost an election after pledging no new taxes and raised them anyway so I think for that reason The President will be very reluctant to raise taxes on anyone before 2012. The opportunity to raise taxes came and went last year and to be honest, we shot ourselves in the foot on this.

As far as who is in the drivers seat, it would appear to this fool that the pukes have a slight advantage moving forward because Obama and especially Senate Dems have to run on results beginning next year. In other words, they have lemons to work with so they need to start making some lemonade.

Sounds like a very serious and adult thing to do.

They shouldn't be able to touch pension plans.

Maybe the barbarians will take over and save us from ourselves.

this is political malpractice on the part of the administration because Obama's approval numbers are still pretty high so it's far more likely he'll get what he wants out of this now than if he waits until his numbers go down later.

With his approval so high, you'd think the President would be bolder this time. He should say "it's not that I don't care about the debt - but my approach is starkly different than that of the Republicans. I will raise taxes on the very rich, close corporate tax loopholes, and cut the bloat in the defense budget."

You've seen the food lines ...get your mind set ready for it because you and your children will be eating there too ...if you are lucky.

make those bastards sweat.

He works for the federal government. This will hit us hard.