Entitlements

[MIKEMCKEE]

I paid cash for my Social Security insurance! Just because they borrowed my money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout! Congressional benefits like free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days: now that's welfare; and they have the nerve to call my retirement entitlements!
Someone please tell me what the hell is wrong with all the people that run this country!

We're broke and can't help our seniors, veterans, orphans, and homeless?

In recent months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, Pakistan (home to bin Laden)...with BILLIONS of DOLLARS!

Our retired seniors living on a fixed incomes receive no aid, nor do they get any breaks while our government gives hundreds of billions to foreign countries.

They call Social Security and Medicare entitlements, even though most of us have been paying for them all our working lives. And now, when its time for us to collect, our government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from our Social Security in the first place?

We have many adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.

AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without needed medication, mentally ill going without treatment.

Imagine if our government gave us the same support they give the people who hate us.

Sad, isn't it?

[saildork]

Your signature quote says it all.

[pdqaltair]

The explanation?

People borrow against their 401K plans all the time. It's not smart, but it demonstrates our nature, to spend more than we have. We horde "stuff", which seems viscerally real, and squander cash, which is not viscerally real.

[jackdale]

Mike

The posting / email goes back at least 4 years, to the Bush days.

[BentSailor]

Now you've done it, jack. By connecting the post to President Bush, we are now allowed (via Conservative Rule 14, paragraph 3) to ignore any complaint made by Mike McKee as just more commie liberal Bush-bashing.

[poopdeckpappy]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Mike

The posting / email goes back at least 4 years, to the Bush days.

Does that change anything ??

Tell ya what though, I'm pretty sure it goes further back than Bush II

[rexboatguy]

right on poopdeckdaddy all this goes way back . our social security system has been robbed buy our government for many decades and continues to be robbed our government both fed and state operate like a pyramid scheme it depends on constant growth to survive yet government is the biggest impediment to growth du to feel good regulations that serve no purpose i have payed into social security for 45 years yet as it goes i do not expect it to be there when i retire i have taken care of my own retirement as i think everybody should if they can to many young people drawing not enough paying . read in a newspaper a few weeks ago that afganasta recieved 2.5 billion dollars for small biz development of our money go figure

[BentSailor]

Originally Posted by rexboatguy

right on poopdeckdaddy all this goes way back . our social security system has been robbed buy our government for many decades and continues to be robbed

Indeed. If you really wanted to setup a fund for the purposes of investment & return, you can't be constantly taking money out of it. Bad US politician!

our government both fed and state operate like a pyramid scheme it depends on constant growth to survive

Welcome, my friend, to modern capitalism. Haven't you noticed that growth is the method of rating the success of an industry, company, or international power? If you're not growing, your falling behind.

yet government is the biggest impediment to growth du to feel good regulations that serve no purpose

Really? Our (Australian) regulations saved us from the financial mess created by lower regulated countries (like the US). Perhaps if there were still regulation on selling credit default swaps unbacked by actual money, Joseph Cassano would not have been able to cause anywhere near the damage he did.

i have payed into social security for 45 years yet as it goes i do not expect it to be there when i retire i have taken care of my own retirement as i think everybody should if they can to many young people drawing not enough paying

Can't talk to that -shrug-

read in a newspaper a few weeks ago that afganasta recieved 2.5 billion dollars for small biz development of our money go figure

I believe that is known as the principle of "You Break It, You Bought It". If you don't want to be paying to reconstruct a national economy, don't bomb the living cr@p out of it.

[BentSailor]

Originally Posted by poopdeckpappy

Does that change anything ??

Yup. Apparently, by bringing in Bush, you can ignore the substance of any argument and claim it is just Bush-bashing.

Tell ya what though, I'm pretty sure it goes further back than Bush II

Wow, it goes all the way back to... Daddy Bush?!

I'm not sure what the rules say about linking it to TWO Bush's, but I think I recall it meaning you not only can ignore the argument, but can add a "I know you are, you said you are, but what am I?" to the end

[RAGNAR]

Originally Posted by BentSailor

Welcome, my friend, to modern capitalism. Haven't you noticed that growth is the method of rating the success of an industry, company, or international power? If you're not growing, your falling behind.

What a sad linking.

All things equal, growth is a sign of progress in the private sector (let's assume we have one for a millisecond.) What does that have to do with the modern cronyism you're conveniently labeling "modern capitalism"?

"Modern capitalism" is a foreseeable state when government expands. It's been a constant throughout history, one we see fluctuating in direct proportion with the level of statism.

Really? Our (Australian) regulations saved us from the financial mess created by lower regulated countries (like the US).

They did no such thing or, more accurately, you've paid too high a price for nothing (it's like thinking that corporations have to pay an insane vig in order to have their right of contract recognized by an entity whose sole function it is to protect such rights.)

There are far, far more efficient and unforgiving mechanisms in a Capitalist economy to assure that this sort of thing doesn't happen, their ruthless effectiveness going far beyond what supporters of socialized/pre-regulated structures could even conceive of given what motivates their "constructs".

That's separate from the fact that a genuinely free economy would be characterized by a rate of solid growth that the centralized types can't even conceive of, separate from the fact that Capitalism's main justification comes from the fact that it's the only structure that recognizes individual sanctity.

I believe that is known as the principle of "You Break It, You Bought It".

It's a principle that doesn't apply in this case as Afghanistan was never whole
and/or functioning. More importantly, it's not the defender's job to rebuild the offender's infrastructure -- UN totalitarian-favoring nonsense to the contrary.

If you don't want to be paying to reconstruct a national economy, don't bomb the living cr@p out of it.

It would be hard to come up with a better example of all that's wrong with the Left than the above -- quite the "construct".

ASIDE:I loved the threat to blow up priceless works of mammoth, irreplaceable, symbolically significant outdoor art unless the US subsidized the Taliban. What are the chances that it never occurred to them that they could earn far more than they were asking by simply making those artworks available to scholars and arts tourists? Confronted by the choice to earn money through industry or to try to extort a one-time prize by holding artwork hostage, they chose to destroy the irreplaceable by claiming it was an affront to Islam (an affront, apparently, the mullahs could live with for a price.)

Somehow, I don't think such a culture can/should be "rebuilt" from the outside -- not until we see them build something like the Twin Towers . . .