How much is Romania contributing? How much money are countries like Poland, Romania, Germany, and Hungary receiving to defray the costs of refugee assistance.
Congress Approved $113 Billion of Aid to Ukraine in 2022
Posted on 05/24/2023 10:55:23 PM PDT by ganeemead
How much is Romania contributing? How much money are countries like Poland, Romania, Germany, and Hungary receiving to defray the costs of refugee assistance.
Congress Approved $113 Billion of Aid to Ukraine in 2022
Please don’t insult me by attemting to bolster you opinion by quoting people you don’t know. It wastes your time posting, and I don’t click links. This is a bulletin board, I’m interested in what you think and why, not what some worthless scribe writes to get clicks. Ask yourself, who started this war, and why? Tell me what you think, i’m open for discussion.
Oh, don't be so mealy-mouthed... You might be suprised by what I don't know. Please do tell, I'm waiting with bated breath for your timeless prose on the root cause of hundreds of thousands of young men being dead, dead for no reason. That you can tell me as I don't know. I rather like young men, and the needless loss of so many... fills me with sadness. Tell me how ths happened, Oh Great Seer.
I mentioned welfare. You are addressing Medicare and SS.
I referenced welfare, because those people never contributed
a dime to what they are drawing, and able bodied people are
on those programs instead of going out and finding work.
Each year we spend 10x what you are complaining about us
spending on the Ukraine, and payments on Welfare are not
going to help prevent a expansion of Russia across eastern
Europe.
Our Ukraine efforts should make Russia think twice.
If the West had piled on Germany early on in the late 1930s
and early 1940s, it would probably have saved a lot more
problems than we allowed to develop while everyone sat on
their hands.
Oh, so you don’t know.
LOL
Medicare and SS are welfare programs. People receive far more in benefits than they contributed to the systems. And many receive benefits (spouses and children) that never contributed to the systems.
The average Medicare recipient receives three times more in benefits than they contributed to the system. 40% of all Medicare costs are paid by the General Fund. The premiums for Parts B cover only 25% of the costs, by law. The other 75% comes from a subsidy from the General Fund.
Most current SS recipients receive far more in benefits than they contributed. If we want to make these systems self-sustaining and actuarial sound, taxes must be increased or benefits reduced or some combination thereof.
I referenced welfare, because those people never contributed a dime to what they are drawing, and able bodied people are on those programs instead of going out and finding work.
There is no doubt that there fraud and abuse of Medicaid, food stamps, etc. But using that as the justification for spending trillions of dollars on endless wars that we can't afford is intellectually dishonest.
Our Ukraine efforts should make Russia think twice.
Think twice about what? Why aren't our European allies doing more, since they are more at risk geographically? This war has been going on since 2014 and we were front and center at provoking it.
March 2022-- Just eight of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) 30 member nations met the alliance's military spending guidelines, with the U.S. still by far the defense pact's biggest spender, according to the organization's annual report.
The new numbers were published Thursday in NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's annual report for 2021. While figures show more members of the Cold War-era military alliance are meeting their spending commitments, they confirm a complaint from some Republicans, and others, that member countries aren't paying their fair share.
NATO members in 2006 agreed to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense to ensure the readiness of the alliance, which guarantees a mutual response if one member is attacked. Member countries in 2014, following Russia's annexation of Crimea, signed off on a pledge calling for them to meet the 2 percent GDP spending guidelines by 2024.
However, the report shows that the U.S. still accounted for just over half of the alliance's GDP spending and 69 percent of total defense expenditures in 2021. The report puts total NATO military spending for 2021 at $1 trillion.
The other countries that met the 2 percent threshold include the United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Germany spent 1.49 percent of its GDP on defense, putting it in the bottom 10 for spending despite having Europe's largest economy.
If the West had piled on Germany early on in the late 1930s and early 1940s, it would probably have saved a lot more problems than we allowed to develop while everyone sat on their hands.
Stop with the false comparisons of Nazi-led Germany to today's Russia. Russia doesn't have the conventional forces to conquer and occupy Europe. The Russians are having a hard time against Ukraine and they were defeated in Afghanistan. Russia has said it will use nuclear weapons if its territory is at stake and that includes Crimea. A red line. Launching an attack against NATO countries and risking the invoking of Article 5 would be an act of national suicide. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) remains a policy.
The combined populations and economies of the EU and the US dwarf Russia, an aging country of 142 million with a declining population. The real threat is China, but the incompetent and compromised political leadership of this country does nothing except make us more dependent on China for the basic necessities.
Paleocon incorrectness
Especially whites killing fellow whites. They love that.
The comparison was $1 trillion to Welfare recipients per year
vs $100 billion to the Ukraine. That’s a ten to one ratio.
You couldn’t address the issue on it’s own merits, so you
tried to transition into insulting SS and Medicare
recipients.
I feel your pain. And I see a person who has no grasp
of any issue you’ve touched on so far.
Sure, we don’t pay in as much as we take out. I would have
gladly traded my SS payments for 40 plus years rather than
be stuck with the pittance we get for it.
They didn’t invest it. They just took it and spent it.
Tell me what I could have done differently. Crickets.
We were forced to participate. They mismanaged it terribly.
Then that wasn’t bad enough, they brought people in from
all over the planet and let them draw from those funds.
How old are you, thirteen?
Lol, sure lets debate "who started this war, and why?". Idiocy
As for you not reading quotes and links, its for adults.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in maps — latest updates
You brought up the phony strawman of welfare payments to minimize/justify the close to $200 billion (and counting) spent on the proxy war in Ukraine.
Insulting SS and Medicare recipients? Why would I insult myself since I receive both.
I feel your pain. And I see a person who has no grasp of any issue you’ve touched on so far.
LOL. In psychology it is called projection. You are the one lacking facts and when cornered prefer to use emotion and ad hominem attacks.
Sure, we don’t pay in as much as we take out. I would have gladly traded my SS payments for 40 plus years rather than be stuck with the pittance we get for it.
SS is an insurance program, not a pension system. That "pittance" comprises a significant proportion of the recipient's retirement income. Citing Social Security Administration data, CNBC reported that about 12 percent of men and 15 percent of women “rely on their monthly Social Security check for nearly all of their income,” with “nearly all” defined as 90 percent or more. SS needs to be reformed, but there is no way it will be eliminated. 69.8 million people received benefits from programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 2020.
They didn’t invest it. They just took it and spent it. Tell me what I could have done differently. Crickets. We were forced to participate. They mismanaged it terribly.
You are clueless as to how SS works. I spent a week at a SS/Medicare seminar learning about the programs. Eye opening. We had presentations from OMB, SSA, the Trustees, a Nobel-prize winning economist, 6 members of Congress, special interest groups like CATO, Concord Coalition, etc. Maya MacGuineas spoke among other luminaries. Basically, the entire spectrum of views were represented. My takeaway was that SS will be the easier to fix. Medicare will be far more difficult.
To respond to your assertion that the funds were mismanaged, you are wrong. Here is how it works for SS. The payroll tax revenue is deposited immediately into the SSTF in the form of non-market, interest bearing T-bills. It is only spent of SS programs.
Few budgetary concepts generate as much unintended confusion and deliberate misinformation as the Social Security trust funds. The trust funds are invested in Treasury securities that are just as sound as all other U.S. government securities, held by investors around the globe and regarded as being among the world’s safest investments. Starting in 2021, Social Security began drawing down trust fund reserves to help pay for benefits. Although Social Security has a long-term financial shortfall that must be closed, the program’s combined trust funds will not be depleted until around 2034, which gives policymakers time to develop a carefully crafted financing plan.
How Do the Trust Funds Work?
Social Security’s financial operations are handled through two federal trust funds: the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. Although legally distinct, they are often referred to collectively as “the Social Security trust fund.” All of Social Security’s payroll taxes and other earmarked income are deposited in the trust funds, and all of Social Security’s benefits and administrative expenses are paid from the trust funds.
Social Security is largely a “pay as you go” program, meaning today’s benefits are funded primarily by the payroll taxes collected from today’s workers. For over three decades, however, Social Security collected more in payroll taxes and other income than it paid in benefits and other expenses, and the Treasury invested the surplus in interest-bearing Treasury securities, ultimately reaching a total of $2.9 trillion in trust fund reserves. In 2021 Social Security began redeeming those reserves to help pay benefits. Payroll taxes from current workers will continue to pay for the bulk of benefits. The trust fund reserves will make up the difference between income and costs until the reserves are depleted. At that point, Social Security’s income will still be able to pay roughly 80 percent of promised benefits — even in the unlikely event that policymakers fail to act.
So, no the revenue collected from SS was not spent. It is still there in the form of interest bearing T-bills. Al Gore's lock box was another one of his lies.
How old are you, thirteen?
If only. Turned 80 about two weeks ago. During my 36 years as federal employee including 8 as a naval officer and 28 years as a foreign service officer I have had a front row seat to some of history's defining moments from Vietnam to Iran to Poland to Berlin to Riyadh. I have experienced wars and revolutions. They have shaped my opinions and I reflect on them this Memorial Day. Have a good day.
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