No Deal No Problem
July 29th, 2011 by flanewsSocial Security and Medicare recipients are begging Congress to reach a deal on the debt ceiling without cutting entitlements. They fear a federal government default could stop the checks from flowing. But Governor Rick Scott says: no deal, no problem. As Whitney Ray tells us, Scott says a federal government default won�t hurt the state government.
Saturday is the 46th anniversary of Medicare and next month Social Security will be one year older. To celebrate, a group of seniors gathered outside of Florida Congressman Steve Southerland�s office with a birthday cake and a message.
�Cut the cake, not Medicare and Social Security,� said Barbara DeVane, the Secretary of the Florida Alliance of Retired Americans.
Southerland is just one of dozens of tea party Republicans calling on deep cuts to spending before they�ll agree to raise the country�s debt ceiling. These seniors fear the cuts will leave them with not enough money to survive.
�Medicare is what our retirement leads to. Ultimately we�re going to have to have Medicare to supplement those policies that were given to us,� said Dale Landry, with the Florida Conference of the NAACP.
If a deal isn�t reached by next Tuesday Congress wouldn�t have near enough money to meet all its financial obligations… and a federal government shutdown could ensue.
And as the protest continues outside of Congressman Southerland�s office, across the city in the state Capitol Governor Rick Scott is preparing for� well, nothing.
24 billion of Florida�s 70 billion dollar budget comes from Washington, yet Scott says there will be no immediate impact if Tuesday passes without a debt deal.
�This is a spending problem and there�s a day reckoning so I hope they�ll figure out how to reduce their spending, but I�m confident in our state that we�re going to do well,� said Scott.
But who may suffer the most are federal government employees, college professors who receive federal research grants, and city programs fully funded with federal money. If a deal isn�t reached the Federal government would only have enough money to pay the interest on its debt, Social Security, Unemployment, Medicaid and Medicare.
Posted in Rick Scott, State Budget, State News | 1 Comment »