Why a presidential candidate’s resume’ is important

By Tom Quiner

The President looked the American people in the eyes and said something devastating: social security checks may not go out if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

There are few things more frightening he could have said to senior citizens, so many of whom depend on those checks for their survival.

The President suggested there wouldn’t be enough money to cover the batch of checks going out the first week in August.

As the National Review pointed out, the President was mistaken.  There would be enough money in the checkbook to mail out the checks.

Even more, Social Security is sitting on a $2.4 Trillion trust fund, and redeeming bonds to cover social security won’t affect the Treasury’s indebtedness, according to Thomas Saving writing in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“By law the Treasury is bound to redeem any bonds presented to it by the Social Security Administration. And when the Treasury does, total government debt subject to the debt limit falls by the amount of the redemption—thus freeing up the Treasury’s ability to issue new bonds equal in amount to the redeemed Trust Fund bonds.

Therefore, meeting Social Security obligations in August, September and all future months in this fashion would add nothing to the gross government debt subject to the debt limit. Not, at least, until the $2.4 trillion Trust Fund is exhausted in 2038.”

This leads us back to the President. When he said  “[T]here may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,” [pay social security recipients], we’re left with two possibilities.

One is that he knew what he was saying wasn’t true, that he was playing politics to scare senior citizens in the hope of shaming Republicans into raising taxes. What a cruel thing to do, to play politics at the expense of highly vulnerable senior citizens.

I don’t believe the President would do that, do you?

The other possibility is the President just didn’t know any better.

Based on his lack of knowledge on how jobs are created in America, based on his lack of understanding on how his runaway spending is bankrupting America, it’s easy to believe that he doesn’t know how social security operates.

Look at the President’s resume. It was awfully thin when he ran for President. He had only been on the national stage for two years as the junior senator from Illinois.  Prior to that, he had been a state senator and community organizer.

He’s learning on the job, and we’re paying a hefty price for his inexperience and lack of understanding of the laws of economics.

So when we scan the crop of current Republican candidates, we would be wise to avoid making the same mistake Democrats did in selecting such an untested man to run for President.

I like a lot of the Republican candidates. In terms of resumes, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Perry stand out because of their extensive executive experience. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul also stand out because of their extensive experience in Congress. Michelle Bachmann has only been in the House since 2007 which concerns me some, even though I like her as a candidate. Herman Cain has no experience on the national stage which bothers me as well.

Sarah Palin only served a couple years as Governor which seems pretty light to me, too.

Considering the growing disappointment in the Obama presidency, let us find a candidate with experience, leadership, and a belief in limited government.