quote:Originally posted by Fighting Illini:quote:Originally posted by seeweed:quote:Originally posted by Fighting Illini:quote:Originally posted by Mr.Dittohead:
AARP is a lobbying group, not a charity. They got Medicare Part D for you guys, the largest expansion of a entitlement program ever.
CEO salaries of lobbyists are based on performance. NFIB CEO makes millions, too.
Medicare might be poorly managed and underfunded, but for those who paid in their entire lives it's anything but an entitlement. You are mistaking medicare with food stamps, government housing, and other "actual" entitlement programs that eat away at this country's ability to meet its obligations to those who are actually productive in society.
I think I disagree with your definition of an entitlement program. It would seem to me that Medicare and Social Security are programs people pay into and are therefore "entitled" to draw from or use them. To me that is the definition of an entitlement program.
Welfare, food stamps, medicade etc are not entitlements , but just giveaways. Welfare was conceived as a way to lessen crime as it is preceived that one would possibally steal in order to obtain food and shelter for his/her family , and that welfare would be cheaper than further overloading the legal system and throwing people in jail or the pen for stealing.
Last I heard it cost about $45000 to house a jailbird for a year, so there may be some merit in that program. BTW, I didn't post that information to argue about, just saying it is something to consider.
Betternu may have to straighten us out on that point though.
Medicare and social security are "earned" through years of paying in. Entitlement just means to give a "right or claim" to something.
For example, I don't work, but I am entitled to receive food thorugh food stamps.
Either way, both types of programs are abused and underfunded.
As for your opinion that welfare keeps people out of jail. Come on now. How many people in jail are dependent upon welfare when they are out of jail? I would bet the overwhelming majority. I would bet you there is a direct correlation with incarceration rates and the dependence on welfare.
Go back and read my post, I never once said that welfare as a way to prevent crime was my idea, I just stated that that was the prevailing thought of the politicians who conceived it. Personally, I am not a big fan of welfare, although the original concept of food stamps which used to be commodities that you had to go pick up had a lot of merits, not the least was to provide stable markets for farm goods, while poor people were able to get those commodities to feed themselves and their kids. I know food stamps is less expensive to administer, but that does not help me to like it more.