John,

As the Biden administration nears the end of its extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting on payments owed by the United States government, it is entertaining increasingly desperate ideas―delaying payments to federal agencies, selling US assets for cash, maybe even selling some of the $500 billion in gold reserves the United States holds.¹

When people hear that the Biden administration has to sell off federal lands or gold reserves to pay its bills, Republicans hope that you believe it’s because their long-told lies about the effects of deficit spending are coming true. We’re here to make sure you know better.

Let’s be clear: The United States is only running out of money because Republicans are refusing to authorize the Treasury Department to pay bills that have already been accrued.

The debt ceiling was never the subject of a negotiation until 2011―when Kevin McCarthy came into Congress. It was always a pro-forma vote that received almost no media coverage. It was raised without negotiation three times when Donald Trump was President. This crisis is entirely manufactured by MAGA Republicans who want to harm the economy.

Default has a cost―and it’s critical that our representatives in Congress know that. Can you use our simple tool to write your members of Congress and demand no cuts to critical programs and services?

SIGN & SEND

More than 50,000 messages have already been sent. We’re reminding Congress that default means:

One million jobs would be lost in the first week.
Social Security checks could be halted for the first time in the program’s 88-year history, with the oldest and poorest impacted first.²
Veterans and active-duty military personnel would have payments delayed.
The stock market will crash, wiping out an estimated $12 trillion of household wealth, including retirement accounts.

This is what Republicans are threatening if they don’t get their way. These are the hostages―seniors, veterans, active military, and working people.

We know these MAGA hostage-takers don’t care about the deficit because they’ve squarely targeted poor and elderly Americans for cuts, while protecting their wealthy donors and defense contractors.

The only crisis is the one Republicans have created. There is absolutely no economic reason behind the default―and it could be prevented TOMORROW if Congress weren’t so cruel.

Sign & send our petition to your members of Congress: Default is not an option. Pass a clean debt ceiling with no cuts to Social Security!

Thank you,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works

¹ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/23/debt-ceiling-later-payments/
² https://twitter.com/kathleenromig/status/1661006936551358464?s=20

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