Name ONE “ entitlement “ that is not a mandatory tax!
The test is, “if you don’t pay your “entitlement” tax then you go to jail. “
She paid in to the system. She was entitled to every penny.
A government union negotiates a fully legal pension plan for its employees. The pension plan is so generous that it will totally bankrupt the whole state. Who cares??? They paid in. They're entitled!
At some point, people have to look at the math. These things do not work in the real world. In terms of rhetoric, sure, you can "justify" them. But the math will win the argument in the end. Ponzi schemes inevitably fail. People pay in a small amount, and expect to receive a large amount. Life doesn't work that way.
agreed.... I am sick and tired of people calling me greedy for wanting nothing more than what I paid into socialist security...to date I have paid over 350,000.00 DOLLARS into the system...that is not rubles, or pesos...that is 350K of U.S. dollars....if some greedy ass, get reelected at all costs politican spent it, that is not my problem...I am not greedy, it’s the damn politicans that are...lets put the blame where it belongs...
my problem is with pensions for people that have not put themselves at risk for the country or community
89% of public employees get lifetime pensions... many that far exceed any social security payout
teachers? why the hell does a teacher get a pension? why??
did they get paid far below average salary? no. was their life at risk? no. then what??
city, state and federal employees, excluding firefighters, cops and military... administrators and bureaucrats. why do these people have pensions? they did a job. the job had high stability. compensated... many richly. why should these people get a lifetime payment plan?
congress people... why do they get lifetime pensions? for what??
and no one is talking about cutting such waste
One comment on this article:
Dumbplumber writes:
“Yes Mr. Cleckner, you paid for yours. However, Social Security (under SSI), Medicare and Medicaid (MediCal in California) have been so ‘prostituted’ and ‘bastardized’ from their intent that they no longer resemble their original purpose.
Moreover, when Liberals are threatened with cuts, they drag our soldiers, firemen and policemen and widows as the targets. Sorry, but you are just a pawn in a very ugly game.”
End ALL federal pensions for ALL civilian federal employees. ALL! The military should keep theirs but that system needs to be overhauled as well.
The author, and you, make a very good point.
Pensions and social security truly are “entitlements” in the original sense of the word. Beneficiaries are entitled to those payments because they worked for them.
Welfare, etc. should not be called an entitlement. Not only is it a misuse of the word, it sends the wrong message to everyone involved.
Welfare is more like a charity than an entitlement. We need a description along those lines.
I don't know whether there is a contractual obligation to pay for military or civil service retirements. I wouldn't be surprised to see that there is no such contract with military retirees, or that it is pretty loose with a lot of "or such benefits as determined by Congress" exceptions in it.
This, in a nutshell, is why we are completely, totally screwed as a country. The majority of people approaching retirement age--including a lot of conservatives--think they've earned Social Security. Someone owes it to them since they paid in all their lives. To them its not a transfer payment program. And in one sense they are right. But when you ask who owes it to them, the answer is "the government," as if the government is some person with a big bank account who can dole this money out without taking it from someone else. They don't want to face the fact that the people who owe it to them are dead. Their parents and grandparents got a windfall and by demanding their full Social Security and Medicare payments, they are completely screwing their kids and grandkids. Their kids and grandkids do not owe them Social Security. They did not set up this Ponzi scheme. And yet somehow today's seniors think its OK saddling their grandkids with a mountain of debt to pay for unsustainable entitlements. And if you even mention this to some of them, they go ballistic and are ready to fight. Once again, its why we aren't going to be able to solve our debt problem.
But the "federal government" produces nothing, and therefore has no money of its' own.
The money you are claiming is a fraction of the earnings of your fellow citizens. How much of it they fork over in a given tax period is contingent on many things, including how many claimants there are.
The "federal government" has more claims than it has payors - therefore, whatever you think you are "entitled" to, chances are you are not going to get 100c on the dollar.
There is no such thing as an “earned” entitlement - the Supreme Court has spoken definitively on the matter that SS is just another tax and entitles the payer to nothing at all.
I paid a life time of work for my entitlements Soc Sec and Medicare through mandatory payments.
Do you realize that, by law, 75% of the costs of Medicare Parts B and D come from the General Fund? The premiums for those programs cover only 25% of the costs.
Can we all at least agree to drop Medicare Part D - the prescription drug plan. This was passed without a funding mechanism (ie completely debt financed), so nobody has “earned” that entitlement.
The Supreme Court of the United States disagrees with you. See Flemming v Nestor.
They don't "owe" you a damned thing and you know it.
Wrong! NONE of them are 'free'.
“My wife and I paid into Social Security all of our lives.”
I have done the same, however I am smart enough to realize that my payments were not an investment for my retirement, instead it was a payment to those that were receiving SSIP payments over those years. There is no “protected investment” that I am paying into. Instead, it is a payment to the generation of folks that are currently drawing payments.....
SSIP is not an “earned” entitlement as this author defines them. That said, his point about VA benefits and military retirement are spot on. Those are EARNED federal benefits, not entitlements.
I put 20 of the best years of my life, 17 of them at sea, into the United States Navy. When at sea, we worked whenever we were not sleeping, and believe me, when you’re launching airplanes for 16 hours, the other 8 usually get eaten up by maintenance. I gladly did my Duty, but it was upon the understanding that while I earned lousy but reasonable wages while I was on Active Duty, when I retired at 20 years I would earn a reasonable pension for the rest of my life.
Do I feel entitled to that money? You damn betcha. But suddenly it has become faddish to discuss my retirement “benefits” along with true welfare, foodstamps, Medicare, Medicaide, Social Security and even SSDI.
It makes me damned nervous because I don’t trust the crew in DC who makes decisions on these issues any further than I can throw any of them. I figure it is probably inevitable that my pension will eventually take a major hit while we continue to pay Congress Critters (and many others) ten or twelve times more money than I’ll ever hope to see, and while my taxes continue to pay for Mooshelle to take world wide jaunts...
How is this different from a corporate pension plan in a corporation that goes broke?
Essentilly, you’re saying the Feral Gov Corp, which is now broke, and whose officers you elected and re-elected despite the obvious ponze scheme (SS) they were pulling on you, is gonna have to take money at the point of a gun from generations of others because they promised it to you.
I also like this, “Well, I worked TWENTY WHOLE YEARS for the military/Post Office/etc, so I should get others people’s money (taken unto the fifth generation at the point of a gun) so I can quit work at 40 and either do nothing or get another job and another pension and STILL retire long before non-gov workers.
“Entitlements are OWED” you by people who made the promise - get the money from the personal accounts of the politicians you elected, and leave the fruits of MY labors the hell alone. I, personally, owe you nothing, and I would never dream of expecting, let alone demanding, anything except personal, patriotic satisfaction for my service to my country.
The bottom line is that 'entitlements' are grouped together due to their financial similarity, not their moral ones.
That said, wither or not owed or earned, our entitlement culture is destroying America, and that includes things like military pensions. We simply can't afford for people to retire when they're 38, and live off with a full set of government provided benefits while they go off and have second careers with government provided skills, retraining, housing assistance, etc.
The military pension system was designed when the military didn't pay well, the skills taught didn't really apply on the outside, and people didn't live as long. These days, the military pays in the top quarter percentile for a high school graduate or college graduate. Those personnel costs are devouring the military budget.
And that's just one example of the most moral and valid entitlements. A huge amount of money the government doesn't have, paid out to people that don't genuinely need it.
If you look at other entitlements and cash handouts, it's not even trading valiant military service abroad for a comfortable retirement. BUT, the net effect is the same. A lot of small, noble sounding programs have grown and grown and grown. People come to expect them as groups, which layers heavy monetary demands on the state coffers forever.
Being former military, I understand the argument for military retirement, but none of these other programs are without much larger groups of supporters who all make their own cases for why they deserve their particular pet funding source, or what moral imperative a just society has to pay it. So, the idea that you can somehow get the government to start discerning between items on a budget due to a moral need and not a fiscal / political one is pretty much inoperative.