Devastating Trump Card
Business Insider
Bruno Vincent/Getty
Republicans
tried to raise those stakes yesterday by offering a piecemeal plan to
reopen popular parts of the federal government, in the hopes that it
would be politically costly for the Democrats to oppose things like aid
to veterans. The bill failed to move forward.
But in a note to
clients, Potomac Research Group's Greg Valliere says that President
Obama still has one "trump card" of his own left to play, Social
Security:
THE HEAVY ARTILLERY: We have thought for weeks that Obama would play
the Social Security trump card if there was no deal on the debt ceiling
by mid-October.
This is one of several reasons why we think a
default is unlikely, and it's one of several reasons why Boehner will
capitulate; the only questions are when and under what terms. We think he may get a few crumbs, but no major concessions.
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Early Thursday morning, Potomac Research Group analyst
Greg Valliere predicted that
if the debt-ceiling deadline grew closer, President Barack Obama would
play his "trump card" in the debate. He would remind seniors that if
Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, seniors wouldn't get their
Social Security checks.
"GOP strategists like Karl Rove surely know that
it's just a matter of time before President Obama throws a game-changer —
warning senior citizens that their Social Security checks won't be
mailed because of John Boehner," Valliere wrote in a note to clients.
A few hours later, Obama did just that during a speech at M. Luis Construction Company in Rockville, Md.
He spent much of the speech warning that while the ongoing government
shutdown was damaging, failure to raise the debt ceiling by an Oct. 17
deadline would be even worse.
"In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time. In an economic shutdown — if we don't raise the debt ceiling — they don't go out on time," Obama said. "In a government shutdown, disability benefits still arrive on time. In an economic shutdown, they don't."
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