Could $25 Billion in Social Security Payments Force a Debt-Limit Deal?
- Millions of Americans are due a benefit payment next Friday
- Yellen says ‘difficult choices’ loom if Treasury cash runs out
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On Friday, June 2, millions of Americans are due a total of $25 billion worth of Social Security payments. And more than anything else, that may prove a decisive element in forcing an end to the partisan standoff over raising the federal debt limit.
That obligation is “an enforcement mechanism we can’t ignore,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, one of President Joe Biden’s top allies in Congress, said on MSNBC Wednesday. “When they find out that they’re not getting that check, our phones will light up like a Christmas tree.”