[Stephen Ritter]

"How can you say that while you're pointing a government gun in our face so you can (via the government) stick your hands into our collective pockets?"

I PAID INTO THE SYSTEM for thirty years as a taxpayer. I'm getting some of MY money back, not sticking my hand into your pocket (I don't know what my hand would get into, there). I estimate that I've paid over a quarter of a million dollars into the federal dole through taxation. Are YOU saying I don't have any right to get some back when I need it?

[Protagoras]

I PAID INTO THE SYSTEM for thirty years as a taxpayer. I'm getting some of MY money back, not sticking my hand into your pocket (I don't know what my hand would get into, there). I estimate that I've paid over a quarter of a million dollars into the federal dole through taxation. Are YOU saying I don't have any right to get some back when I need it?

I see where you are coming from but it all depends on how you phrase it or look at it. Here's a different way, an unpleasant way for most;

The government took your money by threat of force. They stole your money.

Now you use that as an excuse to join the plunder in order to make your self whole. It's entirely human to feel that way, but it plays right into their hands. That's what they want.

[babyface00]

I PAID INTO THE SYSTEM

What are you smoking? The government isn't a bank or an investment. You were screwed for 30 years. I'm sorry about that, but deal with it. Anything you get now is coming out of everyone else's pockets, and since we're running both a deficit and a debt, from all of our children too.

YOU saying I don't have any right to get some back when I need it

In a word, YES. You have no, none, zero right to anyone else's money. (BTW, what you're asserting has a name - socialism) I'm sorry for your predicament, but frankly, its irrelevant.

I can't believe we're even having this conversation on a conservative forum.

[technochick99]

Thanks for a different perspective on things! I was reading a newspaper with a column on the working poor. It spoke of a dinner they were having - polish sausage and potato chips. I wondered why they couldn't have bought a bag of potatoes or something that would last and be much cheaper.