John Boehner On Debt Ceiling: Let's Pay China First, Then U.S. Troops
Source: Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday essentially agreed with Democrats' arguments that a Republican bill to prioritize debt payments would put China before U.S. troops -- except he suggested that would be a good thing.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Boehner was asked about this week's vote on the Full Faith and Credit Act, which, in the event that the U.S hits its debt ceiling, would direct the treasury secretary to pay only the principal and interest owed to bondholders before making any other payments. Money for other payments, such as those for veterans, Medicare and national security, would have to be divvied up from what remained of the scarce federal funds.
Republican supporters of the bill maintain that the most important thing is that the nation won't default on its credit as as long as those interest payments are made on time.
"Our goal here is to get ourselves on a sustainable path from a fiscal standpoint," Boehner said. "I think doing a debt prioritization bill makes it clear to our bondholders that we’re going to meet our obligations."
When show host Peter Cook asked if Boehner's comments mean that, as Democrats have suggested, Republicans are basically choosing to pay China before paying U.S. troops, Boehner didn't disagree.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/john-boehner-debt-ceiling_n_3233422.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
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Obviously, we should worry about redeeming our debt to the largest debt holder first.
http://www.citizenceo.com/federal-budget/graph-of-who-holds-us-debt
Well, well, well, looks like 27 percent of U.S. debt is held by the Social Security Trust Fund. Maybe that is why Republicans want to privatize that program, or cut it by 22 percent, or abolish it altogether. You could probably make a great deal with players in the financial industry, giving them the program to run while canceling out the Trust Fund debt in the transaction. That's one way to take that debt number down, and even if you have to hurt a few seniors and the disabled in the process, when did that ever stop Republicans from making a great deal?
Keep talking about our debt held by China to distract from the issue of the actual, literal largest bond holder. People might start to connect the dots and figure out what you and the Fix the Debt crowd are all about.
Sam
