Posted on 12/06/2012 6:23:07 AM PST by jimt
A new government report finds that the country is heading toward fiscal ruin, and the only way to avoid that is to make deep cuts in entitlement programs; tax hikes can't fix the problem.
In other words, what's needed is the opposite of what the Obama administration and congressional Democrats propose as part of the fiscal cliff talks.
The Government Accountability Office report found that, even using optimistic assumptions about spending, the government is "on an unsustainable long-term fiscal path" that will lead to debt exceeding the economy within a few decades.
The report puts the blame squarely on entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and, now, ObamaCare — whose budgets are driven up by an aging population and rising health costs.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/120512-635898-fiscal-ruin-looms-unless-deep-cuts-in-entitlements-are-made....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
I've PAID for Socil Security and Medicare for 45 f'n years. The other stuff is giveaways, paid for by picking the pockets of working Americans to give to the (largely) indigent class. And what about the illegals, here to vacuum the pockets and purses of working Americans so they can have six or seven bastards to flood our schools and commit crimes ? Are THEY "entitled" ?
Dont' talk to me about Social Security and Medicare until you deport every single "public charge" parasite and their spawn. All the people riding in the wagon should lose their sinecures FIRST, not the elderly who've paid into ths crap their whole lives.
Entitlements, my ass.
I agree with you Jim but any minute now comes the brigade to call us moochers and welfare bums. F.’em.
Obama Spending Cliff File.
Hey, who needs retirement supplements?
Everybody just keep working and work harder....millions depend on you.
I also want to puke when I hear about Santabama’s “Middle class tax cut” which is nothing more than de-funding SS & Medicare.
Ummmmmmm. Yeah.
And there's a reason for that ...
Currently employed as an engineer, I included my pay there along with my pensions and discovered that 85% of my social security benefit will be subject to taxation.
I checked it out without my full-time job pay. No change.
I am going to apply for social security starting in April. I fully expect that Obama and his pet RATS will means test me out of it within a couple of years, anyway.
I need to have my other knee replaced as well as my left shoulder. I hope I can get those done in 2013, because starting in 2014, I will be considered not worthy of being a recipient of a scarce, societal resource.
Do you know what the word “entitlement” means? Because your argument for why they aren’t entitlements is a better argument for why they should be considered so far more than the freebies you mention. The definition, I should think, is that the government is liable for them because of promises it has made. You’re saying is you are entitled to them because you paid for them. So why not call them entitlements?
By the way, you did not pay for your SS and Medicare. You were taxed, and that revenue went towards whatever it went towards. What you will or will not be paid in future has no connection with what you paid in the past. That’s merely what they wanted you to think, whitch is why originally it was sold as an insurance scheme.
If you end up getting benefits it will only be because they are taking money from other people they may or may not eventually give money, which will have been taken from other people altogether.
“Don’t talk to me about Social Security and Medicare until you deport every single ‘public charge’ parasite and their spawn.”
We’re gonna hear a lot of this in the coming years. Oh, yeah. “My welfare’s better’n yours.”
“If you end up getting benefits it will only be because they are taking money from other people they may or may not eventually give money, which will have been taken from other people altogether.”
Wait a minute. People go to prison for Ponzi schemes based upon this exact premise. I’m missing something here. /s
Sorry dude. Social Security is a wealth transferring entitlement program. The nominally conservative middle American clinging to his “I paid in to this” SS program is on the same side as Roosevelt and Obama.
Any economic program relying on seizing wealth from one neighbor to give it to another neighbor based on the condition of that neighbor is wealth transfer and an entitlement program.
I’ve benefited from SS just like anybody else, but we can’t go around claiming that SS is somehow different than food stamps.
“I’ve PAID for Socil Security and Medicare for 45 f’n years. “
More correctly, you paid for someone elses social security and medicare entitlement for 45 years. The sad fact is that now that you have come around to collect your entitlement there isn’t enough money from other people to pay you.
That’s just the way it is.
Big Government will disappoint every time.
“I’m missing something here”
It’s called “sovereign immunity” (which I’ve never understood since supposedly the people are sovereign, but nevermind). Also, Madoff, for instance, couldn’t take money from people at gunpoint or counterfeit money without breaking the law. The feds can.
“you paid for someone else’s social security and Medicare entitlement for 45 years.”
Not that, even You still posit too close a correlation between SS and Medicare taxes and entitlement spending. The original poster paid for something for 45 years, but we don’t know what.
“I agree with you Jim but any minute now comes the brigade to call us moochers and welfare bums. F.’em.”
It doesn’t matter what anyone is called, or how entitled one may feel or not feel, or how old you are, or whether you ever “paid into” anything, or whether someone else is getting more or less than you from the government, or whether they “deserve” it or not.
We do not have the money to pay entitlements as they are now structured. In fact, if we look at the truth of things, we don’t have the money to pay for ANY entitlements.
Those that currently pay taxes will stop working and jump on the entitlement bandwagon if you squeeze then too hard, or if they perceive that they do not get sufficient value out of the taxes they pay.
The only way out is to drastically limit spending, and to do that every entitlement is going to have to be slashed to some degree.
You can “F” the messengers, but the numbers will eventually “F” you. Are you ready for your entitlement check to be cut, or do you really think tantrums will keep them coming forever?
Except the trust fund is more national debt borrowed to buy back those IOUs the gov gave itself. So it is bankrupting us right NOW.
I oppose any ‘reform’ until this is made clear.
Until then Here's my reform : cut those benefits now and save the phony trust fund for my retirement, its all a scam anyway, let the scam benefit me.
The propaganda blackguarding of the word “entitled entitlement” is underway folks.
Bound, free, to earn, labor, camp, an income, State Banking;Insurance Fascist Riders;
Wait till “they” (two Parties using Federal power to enrich their assets at the expense of the People), define:
Retirements as “entitlements” (401K, etc.,)
“Life” insurance as “entitlements” (Mandate #2, you know “personal responsibility”
“Not that, even You still posit too close a correlation between SS and Medicare taxes and entitlement spending. The original poster paid for something for 45 years, but we don’t know what.”
You are right, but the poster was angry already, so I wanted to let him down a bit easy before breaking it to him that whatever he paid over the past 45 years has been flushed and is long-gone and is not waiting for him in his golden years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.