Yeah cause there are no conservatives who believe in liberty, and no lefists who were anti-gay marriage. Oh wait.. there are more conservatives who believe in liberty than leftist, and queue tape of the leftists claiming to be anti gay marriage.All of this stems from the flawed belief that the best way to pay for costly things is have a third party pay.
That and the even more flawed assumption that a program which costs well in excess of ten times what it was projected to cost when set in motion is a success.
Your authoritarian statist ship of foolishness seems to keep running aground.
While not all conservatives are authoritarians; all highly authoritarian personalities are political conservatives.
Robert Altmeyer - The Authoritarians
You have 'flawed' propaganda from true authoritarians who reside on the right, not the left. Authoritarians kill people. Liberals protect people, especially the least among us.
Social Security and Medicare have not cost 'third parties' anything. They are social insurance programs. They are pay-go programs.
SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE
Social Security and Medicare have been prominent in the deficit and debt ceiling debate. Unfortunately, there is much misinformation and misunderstanding on how these programs work. Below are some key points to keep in mind about these important programs.
Social Security (SS) is NOT broke and despite claims to the contrary, Social Security does NOT contribute to the National debt or the deficit. By law, Social Security cannot borrow from the general fund and general funds cannot be appropriated for operational costs without changing the law. In 1983, to address the retirement of the baby boomers, President Reagan signed into law a bill raising the SS payroll tax and the retirement age.
The result is a $2.6 Trillion surplus in the SS trust fund held in the form of special issue Treasury notes – this means that SS actually loans money to the US Treasury. When SS expenses exceed SS income, Treasury notes are called and the Treasury must come up with the funds to cover the call, but this is NOT deficit spending. When Treasury notes are redeemed, the government debt to the SS trust is decreased, not increased. Even if no changes are made to SS taxes or benefits (unlikely), full benefits are still payable until 2036, after which 75% of benefits will still be paid without adding to the debt or the deficit.
Similarly, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance – Part “A” Trust Fund has a $272 Billion surplus in the form of special issue Treasury notes, but this Trust Fund is being exhausted at a more rapid rate than the SS Trust Fund. Two primary factors are driving Medicare expenditures to exceed income – increased enrollment and increased medical care expenses.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is moderating the increase in costs of medical care. However measured, the ACA brings about “sizable improvement in the financial outlook for Medicare compared to the law in effect prior to the Affordable Care Act”. If the ACA is repealed or defunded, the effect will drive up expenditures from the Medicare Trust Fund and accelerate the date of exhaustion of the fund. While Medicare does face a shortfall, it is NOT going bankrupt. Absent any corrective action (again, not likely), when the Trust fund becomes exhausted projected to occur in 2024, its income from Medicare payroll taxes and other sources will meet 90 percent of its projected obligations without adding to the debt or the deficit. Note that Medicare Parts “B” and “D” are self sustaining due to automatic income adjustments.
Although Medicare expenditures are high, they “have grown more slowly than insurance premiums over the past 40 years”. "A private health insurance plan covering the standardized benefit would, CBO estimates, be more expensive currently than traditional Medicare. Both administrative costs (including profits) and payment rates to providers are higher for private plans than for Medicare." However, according to a recent study, 12% of medical professionals are currently refusing to accept private insurance due to administrative burden and inadequate reimbursement rates. The corresponding Medicare refusal rate is 7%.
We have all made mistakes. But Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a party living in the spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a party frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
President John F. Kennedy
"It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners"
Albert Camus
True.
Conservatives are for the most part authoritarian, a consequence of their reactionaryism, their fear and disdain of change, diversity, and dissent – and their use of government to compel conformity, such as their hostility toward gay Americans and the privacy rights of women.
The problem with collectivists like you, is that you can't see past your nose to understand that there are many issues and the left and right are not opposed or aligned on any of them. There are many religious conservatives who are all for letting gays get married. You're just being a fool spouting bull shit lies.
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