Hartzler: If you don't get your Social Security check, blame President Obama

(In her weekly newsletter, Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler offers her thoughts on Cut, Cap, and Balance, and the country's looming debt limit deadline.)

It’s been a very busy week at the U.S. Capitol as the people’s representatives work to reach an agreement on raising our country’s debt ceiling by President Obama’s self-imposed deadline of August 2nd. I am proud to have co-sponsored the Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011 - a House-passed budget measure intended to address our nation’s financial situation and permanently put America back on the road to solvency.

Cut, Cap and Balance is a courageous plan to ensure our country doesn’t default by raising the debt ceiling, coupled with major changes and reforms to federal government spending practices. Cuts to total spending would amount to $111 billion in the 2012 fiscal year and around $5.8 trillion over the next decade. Total federal spending would be capped to force the government to live within its means by scaling back spending to 19.7 percent - the historical average level over the past 30 years – by 2018. Finally, this legislation requires a Balanced Budget Amendment to be passed BEFORE raising the debt limit.

This is the right approach that must be taken if we are to control spending and prevent our country from defaulting. We are in a debt crisis not because the debt ceiling is too low, but because spending is too high. Our national debt is nearly $14.3 trillion – higher than at any time in American history. We currently borrow approximately 42 cents of every dollar we spend – much of it from China – and are saddling our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt. This is wrong. The federal government must learn a lesson from families in Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District by not spending money it doesn’t have. Families, farms and businesses in our area balance their budgets; Washington should, too. House Republicans won’t agree to pay President Obama’s past bills or raise his credit limit unless he agrees to cut up the credit cards – NOW! I brought up these issues as I spoke on Cut, Cap and Balance from the floor of the U.S. House.

It is important for residents of the Fourth District – especially Social Security recipients – to keep in mind that if your August checks are not sent out as a result of the debt situation it will be because President Obama decided to hold back the checks. There is money available to cover obligations and any decision to withhold is his and his alone! This was highlighted in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in which Thomas R. Saving takes President Obama to task for his “alarming statement to the nation’s senior citizens” in which the President claims there might not be money in the coffers to guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3rd. “This statement completely overlooks the existence of the Social Security Trust Fund,” writes Saving. “Moreover, government redemption of the bonds in that trust fund does not breach the debt ceiling.”

Frankly, I think it is unconscionable to threaten to withhold Social Security checks from our most vulnerable citizens! The President and Treasury Department should not try to advance their political agenda by scaring senior citizens.

The Senate, on Friday, tabled Cut, Cap and Balance and has failed to present its own plan. I firmly believe that if the Senate does not like our solution to this problem it should come up with one of its own. It is irresponsible for the Senate and White House to continue to criticize our plan while failing to provide a viable alternative. I am hopeful the Senate will come on board and get behind the American people.

As the Senate works to come up with an alternative to our proposal, keep in mind the Cut, Cap and Balance Act is the ONLY plan that will prevent us from defaulting and will permanently address America’s debt problem. Without a Balanced Budget Amendment, the spending cuts we win today can be gone tomorrow.

As debt negotiations continued, I learned that President Obama is considering substantial defense cuts. I won’t stand still for this! I wrote a letter to the President, co-signed by 46 of my colleagues, calling on the President to make sure our men and women in uniform have all they need. I stated very clearly: “We are a nation at war with men and women fighting in harm’s way on several fronts. We need to ensure that the soldiers of this nation are well equipped with every resource they need to protect the liberties we all enjoy. We need to send a clear message to the men and women fighting for our nation that this Congress will not sit by while your Administration makes unjustified decisions about defense funding.”