I and my peers are now nothing but bargaining chips.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "President Barack Obama raised the stakes in the third straight day of budget talks on Tuesday, warning that senior citizens and veterans may suffer first if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2."
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http://news.yahoo.com/obama-lawmakers-fall-short-debt-deal-045247357.html
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I am both a Senior Citizen AND a Veteran. I feel fear and anger in equal portions.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue," Obama said, according to excerpts of the interview released before its broadcast.

"There may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Obama said. He said veterans
checks and disability benefits could also be affected without a deal.

Does President Obama expect me and my peers to rise up against debt limits? Against the Republicans?

I may do those things, but I will rise up against him for making ME and my peers bargaining chips. How dare you, Mr.President? How the damn dare you?

USA Today: Pledge Tracker:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/obama-campaign-promise-tracker.htm

• Promise: Allow payroll taxes to be levied on wages above $250,000 to help keep Social Security solvent.
• Quote: "The best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more, and people who are in need are protected." - Washington, D.C., Nov. 11, 2007
• Status: Obama has not advanced a plan to keep Social Security solvent since becoming president.

I, like millions of others count on my Social Security check to survive. I count on the VA
for my physical welfare.


Try this view: 

Deficit Predators: Everything You Need to Know About the Twisted, Dangerous Debt Ceiling Fight

The debt ceiling is an exercise in bad faith. And any deal that cuts social programs will be catastrophic for millions of Americans.

http://www.alternet.org/world/151593/deficit_predators%3A_everything_you_need_to_know_about_the_twisted%2C_dangerous_debt_ceiling_fight/

Okay. The whole mess frightens me.

Do you think Obama and Congress will send my cats food in August? Will they pay my

rent?

I paid into Social Security from 1961, when I was 16, until 2008, when I was 63. That is a

mere 47 years of full time work.

I served in the US Navy on Active Duty for four and a half years and did two years Active

Reserve. That's six and a half years.

From the above Predator article:

"Along with Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security is a powerful protector of the entire working population – young and old. It redistributes purchasing power, in loose relation to past earnings, in a way that meets the basic needs of a large number of Americans who would otherwise, in many millions of cases, be destitute or medically bankrupt.

"What economic purpose would cutting such programs serve? To do so would again redistribute incomes. Many of the future elderly would be much worse off, and of course many would die younger than they otherwise would. Survivors and the disabled would suffer as well. In return, what would the federal government and the country gain? A release of real resources to the private sector? Social Security does not take real resources from the private sector! Lower interest rates? The idea is absurd, and not just because interest rates are low today. The notion that cutting Social Security would help keep interest rates down is absurd because interest rates are set in a way that has no relationship at all to the scale of Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.*"

"We the people" sold the Constitution when we accepted the passage of the Patriot Act. Are we

now going to watch outselves be sold in penury and worse?