I have "paid into" these Ponzi schemes as well - the difference is you have been one of the very fortunate ones to have been dipping your ladle into the pot for many years now.
And don't bring State employees and their lavish pensions into this debate. That has NOTHING to do with the Sequestration cuts that gut the military (18% of the budget but it must absorb 50% of the cuts).
The reason the nation's military (which is a Constitutional expenditure by they way, unlike your Social Security and Medicare) is under fiscal assault is because of Federal mandatory spending - which consumes 63% of the budget and is exempt from the deep Sequestration cuts. If the cuts were across the board, I am sure people like you would be howling.
I have struggled throughout these threads and this debate to maintain compassion, clarity, and my obedience it Jesus Christ. Your post to ducttape was uncalled for, an personal attack, and profane. It took a lot of restraint to not hit the "abuse" button. However, I have also said some things on this board that I have regretted. You deserve the same courtesy.
The outright distain for anyone who works as a federal employee is sickening to see. Folks like those we've been conversing with just don't have a clue to what will happen and how badly we will be hurt by the sequester. They don't see that, as you said, an agency that consumes only 18% of the budget is being ordered to absorb 50% of the cuts, unfairly of course.
“the difference is you have been one of the very fortunate ones to have been dipping your ladle into the pot for many years now.”
The money in SSI is money that was contributed by me and my employers, and in point of fact, at my age, I am ordered by the government to take distributions. Same goes for my 401k, because they want the income taxes on it before I die. Since you know nothing of substance about my financial situation, I find it interesting that you somehow think I am “sitting pretty!”
I am sorry that I don’t have “compassion” for those who are in “government service.” Perhaps I should have used less forceful language but that does not alter my feelings. I look around and try the see the “value” in the “services” that I receive from the “efforts” of government employees at all levels, and it comes through loud and clear that the citizens are being taken for a ride by their government. Sequestration is a meat axe approach to our fiscal calamity, but it’s far better than nothing. The idea that shaving off a couple of percentage points in our spending ( which in absolute terms is still not actually cutting anything) is going to lay waste to our government and it’s employees is laughable.
You mention Jesus Christ. Where is the “compassion” for “your fellow Man” expressed by those who work for the government? Answer: There isn’t any!
I was tickled by the woman in the article listing all the stuff that she was going to have to “forgo” because of her husband’s loss of income. Poor Baby.
From the pictures in the associated article, it looked to me like she could afford to “forgo” a few meals,
So please accept my apology if some of the words I chose offended you, but understand that I still believe that we need substantial reductions in “public employment” coupled with major overhauls of retirement “contracts” for these same people. Because the fact of the matter is, the money has run out. The Feds are not in a position to “bail out” any of the states (including California where I reside), so the choice is going to be mandated by the reality of our circumstances. No one wants to see anyone out in the street, but if we don’t deal with our costs of government, we will all be out there together.