Bush Tax Cuts Reduced Total Income By $2.7 Trillion

Of course, there's no reason for the US government to default on its debt. The country is having no difficulty whatsoever issuing borrowing at the moment, with investors willing to make long-term loans at interest rates below 3.0 percent. 

Furthermore, the FederalReserveBoard can freely buy up more debt if investors did become more reluctant to hold government bonds at some point in the future. In ordinary times, this could create a problem with inflation, however, with the vast amounts of idle capacity and huge reservoir of unemployed workers, inflation is clearly not going to be a problem in the foreseeable future. 

Given the ease with which the country can borrow, & the relatively minor burden posed by interest payments, there's no reason for the UnitedStates to default on its debt. But, of course, there's also no reason for it to cut SocialSecurity payments, which would amount to a defacto default on its debt to the SocialSecurity trust fund. Near retirees have already paid for their SocialSecurity with their SocialSecurity taxes. These taxes were used to buy the US government bonds held by the trust fund. If the government substantially reduces scheduled benefits, this is effectively defaulting on these bonds. 
If Van Hoellen feels comfortable ruling out a default on the government debt more generally, then he should have no problem ruling out cuts to SocialSecurity. Of course, if we do see cuts to SocialSecurity on the table, then the public should insist that default on the debt is also on the table. 

This is nut-ball economics, but if the Democrats in Congress insist on practicing it, then voters should insist that it is not just working people who get hurt. The WallStreet boy should know that they're risk, too. 

The reality is that we can get back to full employment quickly, but we lack the political will to do it. The reality is that the budget deficit is not a problem in the short-term because of the vast amount of unemployment - the deficit is supporting the economy and preventing unemployment from rising higher. 
And, the budget deficit is not a problem in the long-term - the problem is a broken US healthcare system that threatens to send costs through the roof in both the private & public sector. If we fix our healthcare system, then we have no deficit problem. 

If SocialSecurity is on the table it's because people in the ObamaAdministration & the DemocraticParty leadership want to cut SocialSecurity. It really is very simple.

http://www.truth-out.org/is-defaulting-national-debt-table63023
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