FOD 2011.02.28

Is obama a liar or an idiot? That question has been raised due to his response when asked what happens to Social Security if the government shuts down when the current budget expires in early March.

"People don't get their Social Security checks." That was President Obama at a press conference last week.

And this is Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, in a statement on Tuesday: "A shutdown could ... mean no Social Security checks for seniors."

The only problem with those statements is that they are not true.

"I am absolutely sure the checks would be sent out," said John F. Cooney, a partner at law firm Venable who designed shutdown plans for the government while employed at the Office of Management and Budget.

Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, backed that view, saying claims that benefits won't be paid are "not true."

The legal case is pretty clear. In 1995, President Clinton's lawyers in the Department of Justice laid out how federal agencies should operate if Congress failed to appropriate funds.

At the time, Clinton's lawyers pointed out that Social Security checks could be mailed during a shutdown, because the program doesn't need Congress to authorize funds for it each year. Instead, Social Security benefits are paid from the program's trust fund.

"The shutdown refers to discretionary spending, and Social Security is mandatory spending. It doesn't need an appropriations bill to go forward," Reischauer said.

And because Social Security benefits -- which go to roughly 60 million Americans -- are paid out of the trust fund, the agency has the implied legal authority to keep paying staffers who administer them.

That's exactly what happened in 1995-1996. While some Social Security Administration employees were sent home, the agency's official written history notes that essential staff stayed on to make sure benefits were paid.

According to Cooney, that legal interpretation has been supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The White House, Majority Leader Reid and the Office of Management and Budget did not respond when asked by CNNMoney for clarification.

Gee, what a surprise. When caught in a bold-faced 'misstatement,' obama and reid just kept quiet and counted on their lackeys in the lamestream media to cover for them. And, for the most part, that strategy has worked.

Do you think obama and reid made those statements to scare seniors into urging their republican congresscritters to pass the obama budget? Of course they did.

So the only question left is whether obama and reid are liars or idiots?

Or both...

 

UPDATE: Be sure and check out today's Hope n' Change cartoon - especially the engraved invitation at the bottom. Outstanding!