Saturday, July 23, 2011

Obama addresses nation on debt ceiling crisis

Tuesday, 7/25/2011

Last night President Obama addressed the nation outlining actions he was being forced to take as a result of the unwillingness of Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.  The following is a partial transcript of his remarks.

“My fellow Americans. It is my sad duty to report that the House of Representatives, having voted over many years to establish this vast enterprise we call the federal government, which touches each one of our lives, has under its new leadership decided not to pay for the programs it voted to create. I now must carry out my constitutional duties, which are twofold. I must honor the commitment that the United States government has made to millions of lenders here at home and abroad. And, I must carry out the programs that Congress has voted to create.

“Unfortunately, Congress’ failure to raise the debt ceiling means there is insufficient money to do both. Therefore, I must do the best I can with the resources at hand, while not violating the constitution.

“Therefore, next week, I have ordered the Social Security Administration to honor all commitments to the nation’s retirees. Over $2 trillion of the debts owed by the government are owed to the nation’s retirement system. That means there is sufficient money available to pay all Social Security beneficiaries simply by taking the bonds in the trust fund and selling them to the general public.

“Unfortunately, this is the only part of the federal government that is fully funded. So to reduce expenditures to our current level of revenues, which only cover about 70 percent of what we spend, I am immediately ordering every cabinet secretary to draw up a list of essential services. We will fund those first. Unfortunately, many services delivered by the federal government cannot be maintained at this level of revenue.

“Therefore, starting next Monday, the government will no longer be able to inspect all the imported food that enters this country. We will also be laying off a sufficient number of air traffic controllers to bring that budget into balance, cancelling about 30 percent of our flights. All student loans will stop. We will stop inspecting manufacturers of drugs and other critical medical products, since most of the Food and Drug Administration’s revenue comes from user fees that can only be used for approving new drugs and devices.”

Of course this speech is fiction.  It was created by Merrill Goozner.  Today it is just something in Goozner’s imagination.  In a few days, it or something very much like it may become reality. 


Read Goozner's complete post here: http://gooznews.com/?p=3050

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