President holds seniors for ransom in debt talks

The Daily Jot


Daily reporting and analysis of current events from a biblical and prophetic perspective.


Wednesday, July 13, 2011



President holds seniors for ransom in debt talks



The president of the United States is threatening to withhold Social Security checks from senior citizens if he does not get his way on raising taxes as part of a deal to allow his government to borrow billions, if not trillions, of dollars beyond the debt limits set by Congress. He told CBS Evening News, "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." That a president would hold senior citizens for ransom is beyond belief and shows a lack of compassion and character. Of course, he will try to blame his position on Republicans, but there are many other ways to ensure that seniors get their checks.



The money can come from many other sources within the government--from shutting down agencies or departments to staff reductions on a burgeoning government that has become so large that it is a burden to all Americans. But threatening to cut off senior citizens? Really? As a young Capital Hill staffer in the 1980s, all I heard was how the Republicans were going to take away social security from seniors. The Democratic Party ran ad after ad saying that the Republicans wanted to take social security from those who worked so hard all their years to deserve even a meager retirement provided by the government. Republicans wanted to take away what seniors paid into all those years. Elections were won or lost on this.



Politicians know they cannot win elections without senior citizens. And the biggest sacred cow in all of government is Social Security. It is the perfect example of what the Founding Fathers warned against. In 1794 James Madison objected to benevolence spending on the House floor, saying, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." Benjamin Franklin said, " When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." When government makes people depend on it, people are beholden to those who can grant them their needs.



This is exactly what happens when a significant voting block becomes so dependent that many, if not most, could not survive without government payments--they become pawns on a political chessboard. Let it be known that it is the president himself who heartlessly is using senior citizens as pawns because he wants to spend more money and raise taxes and Congress is not giving him what he wants. Agree or disagree with Social Security, millions of hard working Americans have grown dependent on it. And it morally cannot be pulled from them without transition. This president is threatening just that. He surely will blame it on someone else. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."



Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!

Bill Wilson