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.