You are not alone. You should be infuriated that politicians would intentionally do this to you. I am.
If you do an online search, but type in 2021 instead of 2023, you will see the exact same fear-spreading from the mainstream media, and the same threats of people not receiving their Social Security unless the debt ceiling is raised. Just like Ken pointed out, they do this same thing over and over, just to scare people, and not because it is going to happen. Ask yourself this question……. Why do they not say that WELFARE RECIPIENTS are not going to receive their checks ? Or that the illegal people are not going to get food, shelter, cell phones, etc ? We are even still sending millions to Ukraine, and spending money every other way that the government wants to spend it. The debt ceiling apparently only affects whether poor elderly people get their SS checks (according to what you see in the news); because they are not threatening to stop spending money on anything else except this.
Joe Biden has consistently refused to negotiate raising the debt ceiling limit. The Republican House passed a bill agreeing to raise the limit in April. Biden finally consented to a meeting on the issue and the two sides met yesterday at the White House where nothing was settled. Yes, Biden is going to the G-7 while SS recipients worry but the sides will negotiate at lower levels. It is obvious to me that one side has asked for and been willing to negotiate all along while the president has refused. Speaker McCarthy held a lengthy news conference after the White House meeting and it can be found on You Tube. I agree with others here that Social Security checks will go out.
Based on the posts in this thread , it seems like everyone believes we WILL receive our SS payments for June on time. I have been pouring over youtube videos that discuss SS payments and the debit ceiling. THOSE FOLKS are scaring the heck out of me. They keep talking about a potential loss of June SS payments, the gov't going into default, an economic collapse, investments losing 30% of their value literally overnight, and millions of people losing their jobs. I know very, very little about such things. All I know is that just when we need them the most, Biden has gone out of town to the G-7 summit meeting and Congress is going on vacation over the Memorial Day holiday.
Nope, the U.S. has defaulted at least four times in the past, the last was in 1933. We have never had so much debt vs. GDP, when it occurred. Money is now spent regardless of government income, and that bodes ill for the future. https://www.theglobalist.com/a-brief-history-of-u-s-defaults/
“This is not looking good at all. The 5th 309.6-year cycle from the Fall of Rome in 476AD also comes due in 2024. I understand there are people who are trying to promote patriotism to retake the United States and return it to the days when agreements were honored and the Constitution stood for something. I appreciate those sentiments, but unfortunately, our computer says clearly that they will fail for without the PAIN, there is no REFORM = GAIN. Just as I have warned that these dark forces seeking to impose their totalitarian view of government will also fail. Neither side will prevail and we must simply CRASH & BURN and that is required if we are to recreate a new world post-2032.” https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/civilization/the-37-year-cycle/M
Think of the "up" side of a default: it may make it harder for the U.S. to borrow money, thus slowing the ability of the Congress to inflate the currency. It could mean that we would be unable to shovel billions of dollars into Ukraine to kill both military and civilians; it could mean that many of the the troops stationed overseas would be brought home. I don't think we will default, as default would hurt mostly the wealthy who Congress doesn't want to get on the bad side of, while the little people will suffer a decrease in their standard of living and will continue to elect the same people regardless of what they do to them.
I do think that we are headed for a dictatorship of some kind. That is always what happens when a major nation falls, especially when so much of the populace is unhappy.
I respectfully disagree with Don Alaska. If I do not get a timely SS benefit payment this coming June 1st, I'll be homeless. There is no "up side" to homelessness.
I didn't mean there were downsides to not borrowing more money, just that there were upsides. Social Security is outside the budget, so it should get paid anyway since Gingrich made that a thing back in the 1990s. I think the to-do is just trying to get older folks upset. There used to be a so-called "Lock Box" that Al Gore referred to often in his campaign for the presidency. Lyndon Johnson violated that box in the 70s to help finance the Vietnam War without going to Congress and it has been violated by every Executive Branch since as far as I know. Entitlements are supposed to be paid regardless of the budget fight. Sorry for your personal situation @Richard Whiting, but as you yourself pointed out, you are now trapped by decisions you made earlier in life. Sorry.
One important thing I don't understand about the SSA. In some of the youtube videos I have seen, they talk about the money collected from tax payers going into the "general fund" and which is used for all manner of government needs. If that is true, doesn't that mean that there is no actual money in Social Security ? And, if so, we will not get any payments until the budget is increased ?
Not sure how it currently works but i just assume they will just print the money like they do for Ukrainian aid and send out the inflated "currency".
The government simply prints up whatever they need. The only significant difference between the government's production of money and you, if you were to establish a counterfeit operation, is that it's legal for them to print up money that is not backed up by anything real. It's been quite a while since we've been on the gold standard.