[Colonel Kangaroo]

I wonder how much of those entitlements are Social Security payments to elderly people who not only paid SS taxes all their life, but also supported military spending through high taxation for many years during the Cold War.

I'm for prudent investment in US strategic defenses, but this Washington DC attitude of seeing endless world crisis and needing to police the world has to end if we are to survive.

[SkyPilot]

I wonder how much of those entitlements are Social Security payments to elderly people who not only paid SS taxes all their life, but also supported military spending through high taxation for many years during the Cold War.

I have paid into Social Security for decades now. Someone else has cashed those checks, and I doubt I will see much of "my money" back.

I have also paid taxes those same decades - to fund the military, and also Food Stamps, TANF welfare, and Section 8 housing.

Not all programs, however, are morally equivalent.

Furthermore, Social Security was completely, 100% exempt from one dime in Sequestration cuts.

"As a result, Social Security, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, unemployment insurance, and food stamps will not see any reduction in funding. Medicare beneficiaries were also spared the axe, while Medicare providers will see only a 2 percent reduction in payments. Mr. Obama's healthcare bill, some recall, also opted to slash payments to Medicare providers in lieu of targeting beneficiaries. Cuts to entitlement benefits are among the most politically sensitive of deficit reduction proposals - Social Security, for example, is called the "third rail" of American politics because politicians who propose any significant alterations to the program risk being electrocuted by the political fallout."

So much for (as another Freeper put it) we all "must share the pain."