July 21, 2011, Keep your damned government hands off my social security
I would give some cognizance to former Senator Judd Gregg's statement that a weekend (or two?) without Social Security checks going out will be necessary before the House Republicans yield on raising that old debt ceiling, not because of his old job (Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee) but because of his new one... senior advisor to Goldman Sachs.
I agree with Gregg's assessment-- better than 50-50 there will not be a "debt ceiling deal" by August 2nd; we are up to July 21 now, with no particular end of this "crisis" apparent. He believes that a few days of frantic calls from older constituents wondering why their Social Security checks haven't materialized will move "the Tea Party"... I think that too, plus/minus a 5, maybe 10% overnight crash in stock market prices. Just to make it "dramatic".
Look: it's part of the kabuki. Yes, actual morons like Michele Bachmann may believe they are doing something "principled" with their economic suicide pacts... but there's a larger script at work here (kind of like how old Rupert probably hired someone to almost hit him with shaving-cream-on-a-paper-plate to bury the lede).
Alrightie then. Nothing to see here folks: move along.