[JRandomFreeper]

All of the entitlements need to be cut. Including SS.

/johnny

[SkyPilot]

There are earned and unearned entitlements - and I do make distinctions in the two. At least for earned entitlements, there was some contribution (in taxes, payroll taxes, or other) from the current crop of recipients. However, programs like SS are by their very definition a Ponzi scheme - the current collectors are living off the taxes of the dwindling few who are still contributing, or by new debt. There is no "trust fund." The money is gone.

The 3 worst actors in terms of our debt and deficits are Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. Of those 3, only Medicaid is unearned.

Add ObamaCare to the list very shortly.

Moreover, the average Medicare recipient reaps 3 times the benefits of what they paid in, with women reaping more than men (on the average).

Food Stamps (1 in 7 Americans now on the rolls at a cost of $135 Billion per year) is also completely out of control.

Sequestration cut discretionary spending, of which the military took a massive disproportionate share (17% of the budget yet must pay 50% of all cuts).

Sequestration did NOTHING to tackle our out of control Entitlement spending. Entitlement were exempt from cuts.

The list of unearned Entitlements is almost obscene.

[shibumi]

Normally you and I agree on a lot, but I must take exception here.

Social Security is not an entitlement program.

I paid for it - to the tune of 15% in some years and 12.5% in others. I paid so much in FICA that I maxed out for more than 20 years of my working life.

That’s *MY* money, taken from me forcibly by the Gubmint.

I want it back.

[kitkat]

>>>All of the entitlements need to be cut. Including SS.>>>

They’ve succeeded! They have us fighting among ourselves.

How nice for you that you’ve made enough money so that you can go galt and not pay taxes. Most of us paid S.S. all our working lives and were promised S.S. in our old ages. $50 paid in S.S. in the 1950’s would have paid for food for a family of five for a week. Today it pays for a tiny fraction of the food bill. And, yes, we managed to do without anything not necessary to survive, and put some aside for our old age, but the banks are not paying interest on our savings and food prices, etc. continue to rise.

[b4its2late]

Yep, all of them. And many of those on SS DBL need to be tossed off it if they are able to work.

[SkyDancer]

SS is not an entitlement. It is money you were forced to pay into a broke system and are just getting part of it back. It is also not a benefit either. You wouldn’t consider a tax refund as an entitlement or benefit.

[TurkeyLurkey]

Not all of SS is “entitlement.”