Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate gathered on Tuesday to repeat demands that the Treasury Dept shield seniors, soldiers, and bondholders from any ill effects of a default crisis. They’ve created legislation to this effect as well, which they urged the White House to back. Once again, however, the top sponsors of the measure are silent on what should be cut back instead.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) was asked repeatedly by reporters what payments Treasury Department should suspend to make up for the guarantees to Social Security and troop pay. He offered no specifics.
“There’s room for other payments to be made,” he said. “It is not our intent to specify every last dollar, but rather to identify these vitally important programs and avoid default on our debt.”
The Treasury Department has said that Social Security payments may be suspended to deal with a default crisis if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2. While Social Security, troop pay, and interest payments would not take up all the revenue projected to come into the Treasury on their own, the Bipartisan Policy Center (which Toomey cited in his press conference as well) has warned that the process will be so “chaotic” that “handling all payments for important and popular programs (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, active duty pay) will quickly become impossible.”
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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