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John,
When seniors in Pueblo, Colorado look out their windows this morning, here’s what they’ll see:
House Republicans like Lauren Boebert are playing with fire by threatening to plunge our country into default, stopping Social Security checks from going out. It’s time for them to hear from their constituents! That’s why we put Rep. Boebert’s district office phone number on a billboard―and we’re driving it to senior centers in her district.
We’re going to keep mobilizing seniors against the MAGA default until this hostage crisis is over. Donate $10 to keep getting seniors in the streets!
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned: The extraordinary measures that she’s been using to stave off default could be exhausted as soon as June 1. At that point, the federal government will be unable to pay its bills―meaning that for the first time since it was enacted in 1935, our Social Security system may not be able to pay its benefits in full and on time.
Why are Republicans doing this? Because they believe they can win policy concessions from Democrats that they could never win without threatening seniors. They want to make it harder for people to access the benefits they’ve already earned―meaning longer lines at fewer Social Security offices and more paperwork for people on food stamps.
As Senator Elizabeth Warren correctly noted, Republicans want “to just tangle aid recipients in red tape in the hope that they will be choked to death rather than get the help they need.”1 It’s the same play they made during the Trump administration to increase ‘continuing disability reviews,’ which attempted to save money by burying people with disabilities in complicated paperwork, to the point that thousands of eligible Americans died before they could access their benefits.2
We must stop Republican cruelty before it’s forced down our throats. Social Security Works is mobilizing seniors from coast to coast, and working inside Washington DC to protect seniors! Can you rush a $10 donation today?
There are constitutional options to take Kevin McCarthy’s threats off the table.
President Biden could invoke the 14th amendment,3 enacted to prevent secessionists from taking the government hostage following the Civil War, stating, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Five Republicans could join a Democratic effort in the House of Representatives to put a clean bill to prevent default on the floor through a discharge petition. This would allow the government to avert default without giving MAGA extremists a veto.
Or we could really get nuts and mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin.4
The point is: if Kevin McCarthy and Lauren Boebert are willing to block Social Security benefits from going out, President Biden shouldn’t negotiate a ransom―he should end the practice of legislation-by-hostage-taking once and for all.
Donate to Social Security Works today as we work to stop Congress from ever threatening our earned benefits again. From the halls of the Capitol to the streets of the nation, we’re fighting, and we’re going to win.
Thank you,
Michael Phelan
Social Security Works
1 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/15/biden-debt-ceiling-talks-00097055
2 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/trump-disability.html
3 https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment
4 https://mintthecoin.org/
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