So, You want to go after something which we pay into and THINK its an ENTITLEMENT?

[legalboxers]

https://www.salon.com/2018/10/17/now-mitch-mcconnell-wants-massive-cuts-to-social-programs-after-gop-blew-up-the-deficit/

Now Mitch McConnell wants massive cuts to social programs after GOP blew up the deficit

Hmmm...

umm..yeah

So you think that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is an entitlement and should be slashed huh...

Note the Above.

Please Note #s 9 and 10. SOCIAL SECURITYand MEDICARE Tax..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)

In the United States, Social Security is the commonly used term for the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program and is administered by the Social Security Administration.The original Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, and the current version of the Act, as amended, encompasses several social welfare and social insurance programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

The Social Security Act established Social Security and promised economic security for the elderly, the poor and the sick. Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund, saying, "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)

In the United States, Medicare is a single-payer national health insurance program, now administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. federal government, but begun in 1966 under the Social Security Administration. United States Medicare is funded by a combination of a payroll tax, premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries, and general revenue. It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked and paid into the system through the payroll tax. It also provides health insurance to younger people with some disability status as determined by the Social Security Administration, as well as people with end stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

So they want to take away stuff, WHICH YOU PAY INTO JUST IN CASE YOU GET SICK..

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They have wanted to end those programs ever since they were enacted, but this debt scam was cooked up in the 1980s when all the smart young Reaganites came to Washington. They tagged the Democrats as "tax-and-spend liberals" (now it's "socialists") so that whenever the Democrats finally come back into power, anxious to be seen as responsible stewards of the economy, they are immediately on the defensive

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Tax and Spend liberals.. When not only the LIBERALS but CONSERVATIVES as well pay into it, cuts are suppose to happen to this...or be taken away?

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. You want what you pay into, or paid into, to be taken away, just to fix a hole which was caused in the last 3 years??

https://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2016/sep/12/donald-trump/trump-solely-blames-obama-doubling-debt/ - Trump solely blames Obama for doubling of debt

The figures are correct, and we don’t doubt the president shares some of the blame for the increased indebtedness. But Trump’s statement leaves out some key points.

First of all, the added debt wasn’t solely the responsibility of Obama; Congress had to approve it as well. And the recession that began before Obama took office in 2009 cut government revenues and led to some of the higher debt incurred during the president’s term.

Summary: Do not use my money to pay for mistakes.

[JackJPershing]

Let's look at it without emotion:

1. Tax increases will kill jobs.
2. People are living longer, meaning more years of paying out.
3. Fewer people are being born, meaning fewer people paying in.
4. If the system collapses completely, no one gets anything.

A better solution, and something that Mr. Trump has suggested and that fits right into his America First themes? Make the nations that our military protects pay for their own defense or have them protect themselves. That would save 1/3 of the military budget at a minimum. Half to shore up the safety net and half toward deficit reduction.

[zagor]

People conveniently seem to forget that those foreign bases are there for OUR benefit, defending OUR interests. If their primary purpose was to protect other countries they would have been shut down long ago.

[ATuairiscean]

I saw an analysis piece on this the other day and the Fiscal Republicans are in a bind - Pres Trump happy to put through tax cuts but won't cut entitlements because of elections hence the debt goes up - About your piece Right wingers accuse Liberals of being ostrich head in the sands but you see Right wingers never need social security, the only people that need social security are spongers.

[ATuairiscean]

Thanks for MHO

[nightdrot]

While you stats are not wrong, they are irrelevant to the problems the country faces going forward. Indeed, they reflect the American public's worst instincts for assuming that righteous indignation is an adequate substitute for mathematics.

First, they are called "Entitlement " programs because everyone is eligible to receive them regardless of income level. If you are a low income worker or you are Donald Trump, so long as you paid into the system, you are entitled to equal benefits. (This is in distinction to welfare programs that are "needs based.") In that connection, we were speaking of income inequality...

Second, the Republicans have generally not touched these programs. Indeed, Reagan saved the Social Security system with his 1983 reforms - which gained bi-partisan support. The consensus for these programs is longstanding and enduring.

Third, demographics is destiny. These programs are designed such that we pay taxes in to pay for our parents on the understanding that our children will pay for us. There is no actual SS Trust Fund. Rather, it was a fiction that Roosevelt created to, as he put it to a reporter, to "prevent some fool politician from messing with my SS program." It is a political subterfuge.

The problem, of course, is that this depends on a rising birthrate. That each demographic cohort will be as large or larger than the next to keep the system financially viable. Unfortunately, America's birthrate is dropping off and the population is aging relative to the population and the workforce is correspondingly shrinking in relative terms. This means fewer people are paying into the system to support more beneficiaries.

To wit, SS has $21 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Medicare has $43 trillion in unfunded liabilities and the current total size of the economy stands at $19 trillion. Do the numbers and you begin to see the problem going forward. By mid-century "entitlement" spending will swamp the national budget.

The Republicans, for all their many faults, at least acknowledge this, albeit while actually doing very little about it after the 1983 reforms. The mathematics are not in doubt no matter how much the American public likes to bang its spoon on its high chair.

The system is not viable but the public is not willing to pay the bills. A restructuring of the system - complete with tax increases that would slow economic dynamism - is necessary. Instead, the public will whine about "paying for mistakes" and other such tropes.

[Secretgardenblood]

Good take