Do you want this country to be the land of opportunity or the land of entitlements?

[Chris]

I notice that politicians have lumped welfare, military pensions and social security into the same category by calling them all entitlements.

Pensions and social security are something people earned over many years and they damn sure are entitled to what they worked for.

Welfare is not an entitlement, it's a hand out.

I was pissed when Obama announced, during the debt ceiling debate, that he could not guarantee that senior citizens would get their social security checks. I was fuming because social security has it's own trust fund and the politicians are supposed to keep their grubby hands out of the "lock box." They've borrowed over a trillion dollars from the social security surplus fund, which is allowed, but they have to pay it back. I heard on the news today that this last year, the government paid out $46 billion more in social security than they took in. Peachy. Apparently, there is no surplus fund anymore and I wonder when that money will get paid back, with interest, to the social security trust fund.

There was also talk during the debt ceiling debate that the military retirees might not get their pensions.

Notice that Obama never threatened the welfare recipients that they might not get their checks! The government dependents must be sacred. I'm sure his illegal aunt had no worries about getting her social security disability check either.

It's clear that those who worked hard for benefits are the first to lose out if the government runs out of money, but the ones on the doles have no worries.

No one is entitled to the earnings of others and should be thankful they get help, then should at least try to get back on their feet so they can contribute instead of drain the system.

I don't think you should talk about our retired military that way.

You don't think I should say we deserve what we earned? Read my post again. I realize it's tax payer money paying for the pensions as well as social security, but people worked their whole lives, paid in and military paid more than most and they earned that pittance of a pension. It makes me ill that our men and women who risk their lives for our country's security don't get near the amount that public union members do.

There is a world of difference between working people who earned their way and welfare recipients who merely stuck their hands out.

This is the Republican Big Lie....Blame the Poor.

Welfare is about 1% of the federal budget.

Corporate welfare is a MUCH bigger problem.

 

[chanel]

What is corporate welfare Chris?

 

[Political Junky]

What is corporate welfare Chris?

Corporate welfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corporate welfare is a pejorative term describing a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment on corporations or selected corporations. The term compares corporate subsidies and welfare payments to the poor, and implies that corporations are much less needy of such treatment than the poor. The Canadian New Democratic Party picked up the term as a major theme in its 1972 federal election campaign.[1] Ralph Nader, an American critic of corporate welfare,[2][3] is often credited with coining the term.[4]

Subsidies considered excessive, unwarranted, wasteful, unfair, inefficient, or bought by lobbying are often called corporate welfare. The label of corporate welfare is often used to decry projects advertised as benefiting the general welfare that spend a disproportionate amount of funds on large corporations, and often in uncompetitive, or anti-competitive ways. For instance, in the United States, agricultural subsidies are usually portrayed as helping honest, hardworking independent farmers stay afloat. However, the majority of income gained from commodity support programs actually goes to large agribusiness corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland, as they own a considerably larger percentage of production.[5]
According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[6]
Alan Peters and Peter Fisher have estimated that state and local governments provide $40-50 billion annually in economic development incentives,[7] which many critics characterize as corporate welfare.
Some economists consider the recent bank bailouts in the United States to be corporate welfare.[8][9] U.S. politicians have also contended that zero-interest loans from the Federal Reserve System to financial institutions during the global financial crisis were a hidden, backdoor form of corporate welfare.[10]
[edit]

 

[chanel]

Grants and bailouts I get, but "favorable treatment" seems hard to quantify.

While I believe many corporations aren't paying their "fair share" of taxes, I hardly see how a "tax break" is welfare. Do we use the same term for legal deductions on our own tax returns?

Economic development is corporate welfare? Seriously?

Sorry Chris. I think they need a better descriptor.

 

[Douger]

Grants and bailouts I get, but "favorable treatment" seems hard to quantify.

While I believe many corporations aren't paying their "fair share" of taxes, I hardly see how a "tax break" is welfare. Do we use the same term for legal deductions on our own tax returns?

Economic development is corporate welfare? Seriously?

Sorry Chris. I think they need a better descriptor.

Do some research on "subsidies."
A huge amount of your tax dollars go to big ag, big pharma,$70,000 +/yr mercenaries that may actually be a larger group than the current people raping Iraq and Afghaniland.
Private corporations being handed your money=corporate welfare.

 

[Mr.Nick]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

"Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one"

- Benjamin Franklin

 

[editec]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

Yes, I suppose if one pays absolutely no attention to reality, if one very carefully ignores all details of reality one doesn't want to acknowledge and one clings to political theories having next to nothing to do with the real world as it exists today, it must seem like that.

 

[NYcarbineer]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

Name the entitlements you want to end.

If you read the thread you would see . Man you left people are lazy

Ok, number one, you want to end Medicaid.

So poor kids who get sick would do what? Tough it out? Die? Tell us exactly what you see happening to poor people who can't afford healthcare if there were no Medicaid.

 

[NYcarbineer]

You want to be a country of no entitlements? You think that makes for a better nation, a better society?

Look around the world. Point out the countries with the least entitlements, and then explain to us why you want to be more like that.

Don't know where to look? Try Africa for starters.

 

[Seawytch]

I realize it's tax payer money paying for the pensions as well as social security, but people worked their whole lives, paid in and military paid more than most and they earned that pittance of a pension. It makes me ill that our men and women who risk their lives for our country's security don't get near the amount that public union members do.

There is a world of difference between working people who earned their way and welfare recipients who merely stuck their hands out.

Don't cry for us, Argentina. My military pension kicked in the second I retired. $1500 a month for the rest of my life + free to really cheap medical care for me and my kids (I pay the $500 a year for Tricare Prime). We also get to use the commissary and military exchange where I can buy a new TV (at the same price as Best Buy) and pay no tax.

I am now also a "public union member" that ya'll despise so much. I work just as hard as I did in the military, sometimes harder and I don't get shore leave in Aruba. I now have a cost share for my benefits that I did not have while I was in the military. When I retire from this job, my health benefits last only as long as I have sick leave on the books. I'll get a pension, but I have been paying heavily into it since I started here.

Both pensions are equally earned and equally deserved.

Neither have anything to do with welfare recipients. I hope you never find yourself in a position to need it, but some people do and have been saved by it. End the fraud, not the system.

 

[Full-Auto]

End the fraud, not the system.

YES!!!

Its broken though. Not one lawmaker has the stones to take SS out of the general fund.

 

[Nic_Driver]

"Do you want this country to be the land of opportunity or the land of entitlements?"

Yes, I want to increase opportunities for the working poor and the middle class and I want to end the entitlements for the rich.

Great plan, sounds like the rest of the 99%.

 

[rightwinger]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

It’s not a matter of ‘want,’ the United States is in deed and in fact a land of opportunity. Anyone may do as he sees fit with his life, achieve any goal desired.

It is also a fact that the United States is an enlightened, sophisticated society that places great value on the importance every persons’ dignity; that there are millions of Americans through no fault of their own who are experiencing hardship and loss, particularly during these difficult economic times. For these Americans it’s perfectly appropriate to provide them with assistance until they are able to get back on their feet and rejoin the workforce.

For millions of other Americans, however, this is not an option, due to incapacity, illness, disability, or age. As a consequence of our humanity and civility we see fit to ensure disadvantaged Americans are provided with at least the basic needs to survive. This is also a wise and pragmatic approach from a fiscal standpoint as to allow these Americans to suffer will only result in long-term detriment to taxpayers, public assistance programs, private non-profit relief agencies, and society as a whole.

Certainly no one advocates we step over dead bodies in the streets.

The notion of ‘entitlements’ therefore as perceived by conservatives is a myth; Americans who are able to provide for themselves are allowed to do so unfettered and flourish. The majority of such Americans are intelligent enough to understand that the taxes they pay to ensure the well-being of disadvantaged Americans are a pittance compared to the hefty price they’d otherwise pay in the overall degradation of society.

That conservatives seek to politicize this issue is reprehensible.

Entitlements is a slight of hand used by conservatives to draw peoples attention away from who is actually getting the entitlements in our society. We, as a society, live by the golden rule...........He who has the gold, makes the rules
The wealthiest Americans has the government in their pocket and make sure that not only is their wealth protected, but that all new wealth is filtered through them first
When the working class complains that they are not getting their fair share of the American dream, they wave their hands and say.......You are suffering because that poor person has it too good

And as unbelievable as it sounds........people buy it

 

[Nic_Driver]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

It’s not a matter of ‘want,’ the United States is in deed and in fact a land of opportunity. Anyone may do as he sees fit with his life, achieve any goal desired.

It is also a fact that the United States is an enlightened, sophisticated society that places great value on the importance every persons’ dignity; that there are millions of Americans through no fault of their own who are experiencing hardship and loss, particularly during these difficult economic times. For these Americans it’s perfectly appropriate to provide them with assistance until they are able to get back on their feet and rejoin the workforce.

For millions of other Americans, however, this is not an option, due to incapacity, illness, disability, or age. As a consequence of our humanity and civility we see fit to ensure disadvantaged Americans are provided with at least the basic needs to survive. This is also a wise and pragmatic approach from a fiscal standpoint as to allow these Americans to suffer will only result in long-term detriment to taxpayers, public assistance programs, private non-profit relief agencies, and society as a whole.

Certainly no one advocates we step over dead bodies in the streets.

The notion of ‘entitlements’ therefore as perceived by conservatives is a myth; Americans who are able to provide for themselves are allowed to do so unfettered and flourish. The majority of such Americans are intelligent enough to understand that the taxes they pay to ensure the well-being of disadvantaged Americans are a pittance compared to the hefty price they’d otherwise pay in the overall degradation of society.

That conservatives seek to politicize this issue is reprehensible.

Entitlements is a slight of hand used by conservatives to draw peoples attention away from who is actually getting the entitlements in our society. We, as a society, live by the golden rule...........He who has the gold, makes the rules
The wealthiest Americans has the government in their pocket and make sure that not only is their wealth protected, but that all new wealth is filtered through them first
When the working class complains that they ate not getting their fair share of the American dream, they wave their hands and say.......You are suffering because that poor person has it too good

And as unbelievable as it sounds........people buy it

We should all enjoy our cake.

 

[NYcarbineer]

End the fraud, not the system.

YES!!!

Its broken though. Not one lawmaker has the stones to take SS out of the general fund.

Where is the SS Trust Fund supposed to be?

 

[Full-Auto]

End the fraud, not the system.

YES!!!

Its broken though. Not one lawmaker has the stones to take SS out of the general fund.

Where is the SS Trust Fund supposed to be?

Separated from the general fund. Talk used to be a lock box.

Never happen, democrats created this scheme to hide spending

 

[NYcarbineer]

End the fraud, not the system.

YES!!!

Its broken though. Not one lawmaker has the stones to take SS out of the general fund.

Where is the SS Trust Fund supposed to be?

Separated from the general fund. Talk used to be a lock box.

Never happen, democrats created this scheme to hide spending

How can the Trust Fund generate income/interest if it's not invested?

 

[Lovebears65]

name the entitlements you want to end.

if you read the thread you would see . Man you left people are lazy

ok, number one, you want to end medicaid.

So poor kids who get sick would do what? Tough it out? Die? Tell us exactly what you see happening to poor people who can't afford healthcare if there were no medicaid.

spin alert. Again if you read my whole post you would have seen not for children. Gawd you are so freaking stupid> i should neg you for being so stupid!

 

[rdean]

I sure want it to be a land of opportunities but its sure is getting to be the land of entitlements!!!

The land of entitlements.

Come on mendel , its not like we are a quadrillion dollars in the hole....its just 15 TTTTTTTTTrillion.

Chill out dawg and vote Socialist , vote Obama.

.

Two unpaid for wars.

Trillions in tax cuts for the rich.

Trillions in a drugs for votes scheme.

Trillions in medical costs for tens of thousands of Americans maimed in Iraq.

Trillions lost in a "derivatives" insurance scam.

That Obama sure has been "busy".

Oh.....wait.....you mean.....oops.....nevermind.

 

[Katzndogz]

The poor don't take advantages of opportunities when they have them. They are entitled to an outcome.