President Barack Obama told Scott Pelley of CBS News that he cannot guarantee that Social Security checks will be mailed on time if a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit is not reached by August 3. The statement was made in an interview that will air Tuesday evening.
Pelley asked Obama if he could guarantee that $20 billion worth of Social Security checks would be mailed on time if a deal wasn’t made by that date.
Obama responded: “Well this is not just a matter of Social Security checks. These are veterans’ checks. These are folks on disability and their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out.”
When pressed by Pelley for a firm answer, Obama said: “I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd, if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”