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How The Debt Ceiling And Social Security Prove The Common View Of Federal Financing Is False.
There are hidden dangers in pushing the issue of the debt ceiling to the fore of American attention, especially for the GOP. One of the big ones is Social Security, which a significant percentage of the GOP voter base depends upon for their survival.
The common logic of Social Security revolves around the concept of setting aside a portion of one’s earnings to provide security in retirement via FICA payroll deductions. Older Americans have made the program the “third rail” of politics and don’t take kindly to politicians who threaten the security of the benefits in any way, for themselves. They believe that the money they saw deducted from their earnings was placed in Treasury bonds so it would be available to them regardless of the ups and downs of the economy or political gamesmanship at play.
Woe be onto the party that is seen as responsible for holding up those benefits, even for a short time. It would be up to that party to explain why money is not available to fund those benefits in spite of a lifetime of collecting taxes specifically for that purpose. The common (though wrong) assumption would be that the money was diverted to other priorities, and the next biggest discretionary spending category is defense, which the GOP has long been associated with.
