Posted on 01/06/2012 6:38:10 PM PST by DJ MacWoW
KEENE, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program.
"We can't wait 10 years," even though "everybody wants to," Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary.
Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
We need to CUT the ghetto disability scams...
The goal is to win a presidential primary, not to show how tough someone thinks they are. At least that should be the goal of someone asking for votes and donations. Santorum took a step back and decreased his chances by shooting from the hip and mentioning only the program that working folks have actually paid into all their working lives.
Not smart. But I guess if it makes some feel good...
Lol, what nonsense. But maybe you’d like to pass it along to Santurum so he can sink his chances once and for all. The goal is to win an election, then take a sensible approach to problems.
And our fiscal problems will never be solved by simply tampering with spending and taxes. We better learn to be a nation that produces what it consumes again, and produces jobs for most working age citizens, or there is no hope of getting our finances under control.
We spend a cool trillion a year now on welfare programs for working age people who don’t work, but I guess that doesn’t bother you and others. It’s just that SS that people have paid to finance all their working lives that bugs you.
Why is that you want to abolish only the programs that you're not eligible for?
“Read 279 and 287. You won’t be taking care of my kids!”
Is it not true that you take a 6000 tax deduction for each of your minor kids? Doesn’t that amount to others subsidizing your kids?
Telling people who invested in the government retirement plan that they will not get their money would be no different than telling people that bought savings bonds that we are out of money and your bonds are worthless.
Like I said earlier, SS is not a welfare program. Cut all of the welfare (Medicaid, SSI, Pell grants) government waste before cutting Social Security.
>It’s ALL most of them have.
Demographic studies belie this. By most measures the group with the greatest aggregate wealth in the country is seniors. Of course this does not mean all of them, but the power of compound investments is nothing new and shocking and people have been taking advantage of them for ages. Yes, those poor seniors should not get hosed, and it’s pretty clear that no politician would advocate such a thing. However a social security check to a rich senior does seem a bit silly when the country is drowning in $15 trillion of red ink.
>Cut the d*mn welfare, food stamps, subsidised housing,
Not going to happen, though I agree with it.
>Kick the illegal aliens who are sucking the U.S dry out.
No problem with this either, though honestly, I doubt it will save much money. Most illegals come here to work, and thus don’t suck out of the system. The current economic downturn has done a lot to reduce the rate of illegal immigration.
>Stop throwing billions down Islamic sh*t holes as Omuslim has been doing.
The biggest foreign aid recipient in Isreal (the Egypt, so there we have the place in question). However ALL foreign aid is only $58 billion or so which is chicken feed when it comes to the size of the budget. The government spends over $1.2 trillion a year on seniors (with a $300 billion deficit with regards to the taxes that pay specifically for those programs). Thus the foreign aid budget is about a whole 5% of that or so.
>The LAST place they should look to cutting expenses is off the back of our seniors!!
The government expenditures on seniors are the largest items in the budget (defense is next, and they are already taking an axe to it, though defense, not SSI or Medicare is actually a constitutionally mandated expense). It’s pretty hard to reduce a budget without everything taking some hit. Also the spending on seniors is the fastest growing portion of the budget, so it measures are not taken to get it under control, we’re pooched.
>Is it not true that you take a 6000 tax deduction for each of your minor kids? Doesn’t that amount to others subsidizing your kids?
I am left wondering what has happened to FR. Have we been invaded by DU or something? The terminology is just the same. The idea that a ‘conservative’ would call a deduction a subsidy is utterly laughable.
He doesn’t get a check for those kids. He gets to keep more of the money HE EARNS for those kids. None of your money goes into his pocket to do that. There is no wealth transfer involved.
We probably agree more than my comments indicate. We have to stop all the transfer payments first. ‘Stop all the waste and see where we are at.
>Like I said earlier, SS is not a welfare program. Cut all of the welfare (Medicaid, SSI, Pell grants) government waste before cutting Social Security.
Ok, if it is not a welfare program, what is it? It transfers wealth from one group to another. It takes the money paid by those currently employed and transfers it to those currently retired. Don’t even mention the nonsense that is the ‘trust fund’. That clearly has no more legitimacy than if you wrote yourself an IOU for $1 billion and claimed to be a billionaire.
It’s pretty clear that you fell right into the trap that FDR proposed. The man was a brilliant politician who understood that if he wanted to expand the government, he needed to rope in the middle class as dependents. Social Security was the most brilliant scam even pulled. When the government which persecuted the original Ponzi scheme (FDR’s DOJ) created their own version, everyone thought it was wonderful.
I’m really quite taken with much of the attitude around here vis a vis Social Security. “I paid in, so I deserve the money, I don’t care if we’re broke”. I have to wonder if they would rob a neighbor if they were robbed to make up the loss.
Thank you for sharing that, Kickass Conservative, and may God continue to give you and your family strength in this journey.
“The idea that a ‘conservative’ would call a deduction a subsidy is utterly laughable.”
Try to think this thing through... For one person or group of people to get a tax break that other tax payers do not get is a subsidy, because it necessarily increases the taxes of the second group. That increase of taxes on the second group amounts to the second group subsidizing the first. The second group get’s to keep EVEN LESS of what they earn.
Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?
My mother is in her mid 60’s and invested well so she doesn’t need it. She never counted on getting any SS, so she didn’t expect it and planned accordingly.
Count me among those who can't believe a FReeper would say this.
If you still think that is the same as a subsidy, you might as well migrate over to DU. You have accepted that it the money is already the government’s and that anything you get to keep compared to someone else is largess from that government. That is complete and utter bunk.
He EARNED the money. Not one penny of yours came from your pocket and jumped into his. If he happened to keep more, well then good for him. If government didn’t manage to live within the budget set (which includes expected revenues from the tax code that project for deductions), and raises other taxes, that is not his fault in any way shape or form.
Now to be clear, I don’t like deductions at all. I, however, don’t dislike them for the socialist reason you proffer. I dislike them because they are a means for the government to control your actions. They create a path of less resistance if you do what they want you to do. They want you to own a home instead of renting, so they give a deduction. They want you to have kids, so they give a deduction. They want you to give to approved charities, so they give a deduction. I think all of it is bunk.
I would like a flat tax system with no deductions whatsoever. People should not have the government second guessing how they run their lives and spend their money.
“Ok, if it is not a welfare program, what is it?”
It’s money that was invested over a lifetime for one’s old age that was stolen by the government and handed out to others. The fact that it was mismanaged doesn’t do away with the debt. The money that was stolen, BTW, was stolen from the young not the old, because even though the money is gone the young still have an obligation to their parents.
As for the young generation taking care of the old; There is a responsibility there... That’s the way it has been since the beginning of time. A corollary to the parent caring for the kids.
“He EARNED the money. Not one penny of yours came from your pocket and jumped into his.”
Indeed it did... every extra nickle he got to keep was a extra nickle I had to pay. It was a redistribution of wealth from me to him. I EARNED the extra money that I had to pay in taxes to support his deduction(s) too.
Your not thinking very clearly this morning, are you?
Doc, you been sniffing the ether again?
>It’s money that was invested over a lifetime for one’s old age that was stolen by the government and handed out to others. The fact that it was mismanaged doesn’t do away with the debt. The money that was stolen, BTW, was stolen from the young not the old, because even though the money is gone the young still have an obligation to their parents.
It’s not invested money since it has never been yours. Once you paid that tax to the government, it became theirs to do with as they saw fit. Every one of those Social Security notes people gets does specifically point out that the numbers are merely estimates subject to change as the need might arise.
But it is pretty clear that you have no problem with the idea of perpetuating the theft. The young of yesterday were robbed, so we must rob the young of tomorrow. Well I can tell you simply that when the burden gets to be too much, something will give. If it’s Weimar inflation or some other way out, it will be found. The current system is utterly unsustainable, and to deny that is to live in a dreamworld.
>As for the young generation taking care of the old; There is a responsibility there... That’s the way it has been since the beginning of time. A corollary to the parent caring for the kids.
I have no onus to pay for anyone but my family. I may well take on such things as charity, but it is nothing more than that. You are getting pretty well into “from those according to ability, to those according to need” territory.
>Doc, you been sniffing the ether again?
So you are incapable of making rational arguments without insult again?
I make it a habit of posting statistics when making assertions like yours. Do your own research. It would take you about 2 minutes to realize this subject has been well documented. Illegals are a NET DRAIN on the economy and to the taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of billions a year. So laziness begets flack. You have a thin skin FRiend, lighten up
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