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Camille Paglia: This is why Trump’s winning, and why I won’t vote for Hillary
salon ^ | March 24, 2016 | Camille Paglia

Posted on 03/24/2016 6:46:24 AM PDT by Hojczyk

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To: marktwain
Something for nothing? Seriously?

I started paying in around 1964 and continued to pay in every year I had an income. At the same time, my employers were paying in matching amounts.

The system is broke, but WE didn't break it. The politicians did.


61 posted on 03/24/2016 9:37:43 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Hojczyk

you mean he is “too” smart, right?


62 posted on 03/24/2016 9:38:37 AM PDT by tioga
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To: PapaBear3625

“I have a better idea: rather than cutting into a system that working people have paid into for generations, how about we STOP DEAD all welfare programs that facilitate underclass women having lots of babies they cannot afford to feed, and who will most likely grow up to expand the underclass further?

When no underclass or illegal immigrant is getting government funding, THEN let’s talk about SS.”

We need to cut all at once. Cutting just one place will not work. Federal welfare is a tiny portion of the budget. It is mostly the states that cover welfare.

We have allowed ourselves to be boxed into this corner.

Trump has some good ideas to cut areas. I think he could get alot done.


63 posted on 03/24/2016 9:40:07 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: TomGuy

Yes, what’s with the John Wayne delivery?


64 posted on 03/24/2016 9:42:43 AM PDT by gogeo (Donald Trump. Because it's finally come to that.)
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To: catnipman

“So you’re a Marxist, then. Steal from me who earned it and then GIVE it to others who didn’t earn it. So my money gets stolen TWICE from me at gunpoint. Once when they steal it from my paycheck, with promises to give a little bit back to me right before I die, and then they break that promise and say, “Sorry, we’re gonna give your money to other people who didn’t work hard like you did. Sorry.”

The Government has already “given away” all the money you put in, and more.

Your solution is to require that more money be stolen from other people to pay you, while the country is bankrupted and destroyed.

All of spending has to be reduced, not just Social Security. If we cut way back on regulations and taxes, we may get enough growth to be able to keep paying current levels of Social Security.

There is no Social Security “trust fund” it has all been stolen and spent long ago.

Was it stolen? Yes. We can ignore the problem and have the Country be destroyed, or we can solve the problem.

I paid in as long as you did. My money was stolen as well.

Saying that government spending must be reduced, for everyone but me, does not work.


65 posted on 03/24/2016 9:48:25 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: TomGuy

“The system is broke, but WE didn’t break it. The politicians did.”

There is truth in what you say, but democracies fail because politicians buy votes to get elected. The people who vote for more and more by going deeper and deeper into debt are partly responsible.

Yes, they are lied to. That means the people are victims of the fraud.

But to say “We are the victim, so we demand more victims so that we can keep getting *our* goodies”, only exacerbates the problem. It does not solve it. Either Social Security spending will be slowed in an orderly way, through gradual reductions in projected increases, or the system goes bust and benefits are reduced through massive inflation or they disappear with a change in Government, or a repudiation of debt.

The current system is unsustainable.


66 posted on 03/24/2016 10:00:56 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

“greedy social security recipients”

How old are you?

FYI social security regulations stipulate that if you continue to work, you can have only $15,000 of annual income in addition to your SS. For every $2 over $15k in annual earned income (including withdrawals from savings or investments) you forfeit $1 of your social security check. So the more you earn, the more you lose, until it’s gone.

For the vast majority of Americans whose SS checks are under $20k anyway, continuing to work means maybe they can shoot for $35k.
And they’re still required to continue paying income taxes—around $5k— on that $35k. Factor in property taxes, etc, which can eat up thousands more, and most seniors are living on less than $20-25k, even if they continue working after retirement.

For the “greedy” who do not wish to curtail their lifestyles and choose to live on their own savings and investment withdrawals far beyond $15k annually, they’d end up forfeiting the SS anyway.


67 posted on 03/24/2016 10:44:50 AM PDT by mumblypeg (Reality is way more complicated than the internet. That's why I'm here.)
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To: marktwain

The problem with your reasoning is in the first sentence. Recipients are getting back what they paid in. The solution is to privatize the system and make it optional. That way, you don’t pay in you get nothing back. The problem there is the low wage earners will complain the govt is in incompassionate. What you are looking for is redistribution of wealth.


68 posted on 03/24/2016 11:08:42 AM PDT by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches and get with what's real.)
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To: PhiloBedo

“The problem there is the low wage earners will complain the govt is in incompassionate. What you are looking for is redistribution of wealth.”

Yes,that is the best sollution. I hope we can get there. When it was even suggested as a possibility, the screams against it were deafening.


69 posted on 03/24/2016 11:12:41 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: Dr. Sivana

Yo Doc!! She forgot Nurse Rachet.


70 posted on 03/24/2016 11:19:46 AM PDT by willibeaux (de ole Korean War vet age 86)
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To: marktwain
Federal welfare is a tiny portion of the budget. It is mostly the states that cover welfare.

In a Heritage Foundation report, as of 2011:

The means-tested welfare system consists of 69 federal programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care, social services, training, and targeted education aid to poor and low-income Americans. Means-tested welfare programs differ from general government programs in that they provide aid exclusively to persons (or communities) with low incomes.

In FY 2011, federal spending on means-tested welfare, plus state contributions to federal programs, will reach $940 billion per year. The federal share will come to around $695 billion, or 74 percent, while state spending will be around $250 billion, or 26 percent.

Combined federal and state means-tested welfare is now the second-largest category of overall government spending in the nation. It is exceeded only by the combined cost of Social Security and Medicare. Welfare spending is greater than the cost of public education and is greater than spending on national defense.

$940 BILLION is hardly a "tiny portion" of the budget. Let's cut the programs that propagate the underclass FIRST, and see how things are.
71 posted on 03/24/2016 11:59:00 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: marktwain
It would not take much sacrifice; simply stop growing it for a few years!
The govt has been doing it with bogus "no inflation" scenarios. Better to curtail the "Come on Down!" mindset of those who run Disability. ADD is considered a disability fer Chrissakes, not to mention hard-to-disprove back or neck "injuries". Unemployment run out? Hell, apply for disability, it's better than a crap shoot.

But even that is fought by greedy Senior Social Security recipients, . . .
Yeah, that $550 a month those old folks get really allows a posh lifestyle.

. . . who, as a class, are much better off financially than the average American."
You must know a different group of SS recipients.

72 posted on 03/24/2016 12:17:38 PM PDT by Oatka (Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young.)
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To: Lurker

Lol...Ted Cruz has zero chance of winning New York, either in the primary or the general.

Winning Ohio presumes that Trump & Kasich voters would stick around and vote for Cruz over Clinton. The data suggests otherwise.


73 posted on 03/24/2016 1:01:06 PM PDT by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aiderai)
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To: marktwain

Probably because we busted our butts over our working careers, both forcibly funding it as well as saving for our retirement.

Now you want to cut the benefits we earned as a “reward” for planning ahead.

Thanks, you bloody liberal!


74 posted on 03/24/2016 1:31:24 PM PDT by Redleg Duke (Remember...after the primaries, we better still be on the same team!)
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To: TroutStalker

I love how Mooch is crouching so she isn’t taller than her Latin dance partner.

Obama is flat footed and looks uncomfortable touching a woman.


75 posted on 03/24/2016 2:34:08 PM PDT by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: PapaBear3625

Thanks for the article. It is well done. Federal welfare has grown enormously in the last decade. You are correct, except the Federal share is 695 billion, not 940 billion.

But that is a very large amount.

It is about equivalent to the Social Security spending, so you have proven your point.


76 posted on 03/24/2016 2:37:07 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: Hojczyk

This coming from a liberal, feminist, democrat, lesbian, progressive is unique.

I’m enjoying this election season.

5.56mm


77 posted on 03/24/2016 2:41:15 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: M Kehoe

Paglia’s been a darling of conservatives for a long time, because she’s one of the few DINOs left.


78 posted on 03/24/2016 2:43:15 PM PDT by JediJones (I'm with Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, Dana Loesch, Steve Deace, Michelle Malkin, James Woods & Ben Shapiro)
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To: Oatka

Average Social Security benefit for a retired worker is $1,341. Very few get as low as $550 a month.

And, very few live only on Social Security.

https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/34019/Article/3736/What-is-the-average-monthly-benefit-for-a-retired-worker.

Social Security makes up 38% of the income for recipients.

https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-income

So the average income of a Social Security recipient is about $35,000 a year. Not a life of luxury, but they should have their home paid for by then.


79 posted on 03/24/2016 2:58:26 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain
You are correct, except the Federal share is 695 billion, not 940 billion.

Thank you for your kind response. My viewpoint was, that it doesn't matter to me what percentage is federal state, or local -- it's all still coming out of my aggregate tax bill.

80 posted on 03/24/2016 3:12:00 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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