WHITE HOUSE – United States President Barack Obama has signed up to Kickstarter in an unprecedented move to raise the capital required for the country to service its debt.
With little progress made over the weekend on negotiations to raise the federal borrowing limit, Mr Obama has taken to the crowd sourced funding platform as “the only viable option left to solve the debt crisis.”
The president had already identified more the $4 trillion in budget cuts, but was rejected by House Speaker John Boehner who refused to reduce his tanning budget by even an inch.
‘No alternative’
It is the first time the creative funding website has been used to service a nation’s debt. Some members have criticised the use of the platform to pay bills.
The company CEO Perry Chen defended the project intentions however, suggesting the idea the government could fix its long term financial problems in such a short window was the most creative project he had ever seen on the site.
Mr Obama is aiming to bypass the current budget conflict between Republican and Democrats by turning to anonymous internet users to completely wipe the country’s debt obligations.
“What I’m proposing here, today, is to wean ourselves off debt completely,” declared Mr Obama while filing out his Kickstarter profile.
“Yes we can sit here and raise the debt ceiling as many Presidents before me have done. Keep borrowing from China and hope they don’t notice we can never ever pay them back. But why don’t we think outside the box for a change?”
Setting the fundraising target at $14 trillion, Obama promised every contributor would get bonus posters and stickers plus a signed copy of their social security cheque on time if the fundraising target was reached.
Give generously
Speaking to the press after adding his profile picture and video to the project, the president said soliciting funds through Kickstarter was “infinitely more viable” than trying to reach any agreement with Republicans.
Perhaps unsurprisingly plan has not been supported by the GOP, many still preferring to take whatever option lead to lower taxes for the top 2% or earners, but House leader Eric Cantor admitted it wasn’t the worst idea out there and pledged $100 to help things along.
Mr Obama was hopeful the site’s other contributors would support the project and help to raise funds “in the next 10 days or so”.
“So far we’ve got $1000 pledged…but these things always start slow.”
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