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Welcome to America, the liberal failure.

We need to try  trickle up economics.  I punched a time clock while 5 republican administrations tried to have trickle down economics and it don't work very well for a blue collar worker.

DOES YOUR COMMIE MOMMIE KNOW ABOUT YOU?!

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Horrors! I would not have thought the defense budget was so impoverished, since the U.S. defense budget exceeds the combined defense budgets of the next highest-spending 6 or 7 countries.

Truth is thaere is a whole lot of waste, redundancy and outright foolishness in the defense budget.

And nothing in the entitlement budget right?????

Part of the problem is demographic. We are an older population than we were in the 1960s and people live longer. That is why we have to seriously rethink entitlements.

If by entitlements you mean social security, I have a simple solution.  Refund everyone over 45 what has been taken from them by the government, plus what was taken from their employers by the government.  Then eliminate the social security administration all together. 

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I think there is probably a lot of waste and redundancy in all areas of the federal budget.

While you fretted about somebody getting ten dollars of cell phone service for free, congress refused Obama wanting to cut $24B for satellites and airplanes the Air Force dosen't need or want.

While you worried that someone bought a candy bar with their food stamps card, House Republicans refused the advise of both Obama and Bush to cut VOA to China where it is not listened to, which would have saved $14M. While you got all pizzed off that somebody who lost their job drew a $250 check from unemployment insurance, , both Presidents Bush and Obama wanted to pull funding for a non-essential agriculture program that made digital versions of public TV broadcasts for a rural audience. The funding still continues.

From Money.com today:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/2...index.html?iid=HP_LN

Do you have parents or grandparents receiving social security?  If they need it to survive or to make ends meet, are you going to provide that amount to them so they can "get by"?  Sometimes we need to think about what we say and its consequences before we speak.  I do hope all of your older family members are filthy rich and do not need SS at all..

Government assistance is costing tax payers over $1 trillion/year.  That $10 cell phone and misuse of EBT cards is much worse than you portray.  In California there are 103 living off the government to every 100 who makes it on their own.  Welfare receipiants recieve more money in assistance than the average worker who receives no help.  Trivializing the issue by making it look like we are nit picking cell phones and candy bars is ridiculous.

If they refunded the money to your parents/grandparents, they would be better off.  At best, they are getting 25 cents on the dollar back compared to what they would have if they could have self invested all those years.  SS has become a giant ponzi scheme.  I'm making the equivalent of a house payment every month so I can draw $1800/month when I turn 67.  Average life span for a man is around 76, don't see me every recouping my 40 years worth of flushing my money down the crapper. 

The gov't could eliminate programs and sell off assets not central to the function of gov't to meet our obligation to Americans in retirement or close to retiring. We could then create private accounts for citizens that are funded with a 10% mandatory contribution. 

earthmomma> Do you have parents or grandparents receiving social security?  If they need it to survive or to make ends meet, are you going to provide that amount to them so they can "get by"?  Sometimes we need to think about what we say and its consequences before we speak.  I do hope all of your older family members are filthy rich and do not need SS at all..

hg> thx earthmomma. i am on SS, and have nobody to supplement mine. i don't have the answer for us 'older folks', but less income would definitely be the end of many. we would surely die out at alarming rates. hmmm, maybe that IS the answer....(jk of course).

What most people don't even think about is we've been there and done that before.

Never had any social safety net before the New Deal. Most old people were just plain poor , and were cared for by their children. 

One of the things that kept the Bush Recession from becoming another "Great Depression" was that older people had SS . They may have lost their retirement, and the value of their house may have gone down to the price of dirt, but they had SS to help see them thru.

I never cease to be amazed how many people can only see the short term greed in their own little lives, and discount the benefit even they get from living in a society where either they would have to be taking care of their own parents, or just let them rot. 

It's been proven that people WILL NOT SAVE . During the "payroll tax holiday" that we just came out of, according to USA Today, most people just spent that extra money.

Do any of you remember anyone that was not on SS ? I do, and it wasen't a pretty site.

People would save with a private retirement account because they would be required by law to save. That is how they work in other countries.

No one is talking about leaving old people to rot. That is just the conclusion that you jump to because that is what Democrats tell you to think.

Before the Raw Deal, parents were taken care of by their families.  Again, refund to people what was taken by the government.  Help the helpless, but many that are drawing checks are able to play golf, ride four wheelers and do anything else that they want to.  They are not disabled at all, but still drawing a disability check. 

You have to wonder, with more taking out than putting in, what's going to happen to all those "poor old folks" when the ponzi scheme collapses. If you care about your parents at all why would you leave them at the mercy of the government? Talk about leaving them to rot. 

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This happens way to often. Dems answer is to deny it's happening, or claim there's not enough fraud to worry with. Bull, fraud is rampant and way past enough to worry about. It makes me wonder what they consider is enough to worry about. They think fraud is the price you pay for having the system in place. Again, any fraud is too much, and it doesn't help that the ones that are defrauding the system and are reported aren't even investigated.

Social Security has never added one red cent to the deficit , let alone the debt. It is projected to be completely solvent for about another 20 years. 

It is not a ponzi sceme, it works. 

In reply to your comment.  Mr. or Ms. or Mrs Goposaur (familiar face) origionally INVICTUS.  As working, I have worked for someone for 52 years.  My mommie was no commie.  Yes she knew about me.  I also understand why you hide don't have your identity shown.  When I was a little boy, I remember old men talking about having their faces hid by sheets. Is there a similar thing here?

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I laugh my butt off at seeweed’s dumb remarks like this. I guess he also believes we don’t have a spending problem and that unemployment grows the economy. People like seeweed are a drain on the country.

If a private company did a scam like social security they would be shut down by the government.

There is no guarantee that it will last another 20 years. For the sake of argument let's say, OK, twenty more years, which is just not that far in the future. Twenty years of less people paying into the system and more taking out. What happens to people's parents then? What's the plan for them after they've paid for those 20 years and it's not there? There are too many "ifs" to say that it will be solvent for that long, and even so, ONLY 20 more years is not a real good outlook.

I have about 18 years left to work.  As I said before, I'm paying the equivalent to my house payment every month into SS.  If SS collapses in 20 years, all the money (at least a million dollars if I had been allowed to invest it all over 40 years) that was stolen from me by this great entitlement plan will not be available to me.  Lets just call SS what it really is, a welfare program.

I have no problem with folks that paid into social security recovering their money.  If it were run like a true savings account it would still be better than the current system.  I am not advocating starving old folks, but I am in favor of what Bill Cosby said "if you didn't put nothing in, you ain't gittin' nothing out!"

A person only has to work a few paychecks worth of contributions to get full bennies.  In its current form, it nothing short of robbery.

Well, no, disability and underage children notwithstanding. you have to work 40 quarters to be eligible to draw SS.  That's 10 years. Also , your SS check is predicated on the amount you put into the system based upon your income for those 10 years.

If all you work is 40 quarters, you will have a very small SS check.

TWO women can legally draw benefits from ONE man.

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Nothing strange about that;  ALL the women I know benefit from knowing ME!

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I've never checked, but was told a woman that has never worked can still draw half of what her husband draws when she is old enough. IF that is true, and like I said before, two women drawing from one man being very common, it goes back to what I posted earlier, examples of more people taking out than putting in. If a man dies, and his children draw "off him", which is fine, so save the "you hate children and want them to starve speech", then you have people taking out that haven't paid in. That "you don't get it if you haven't paid" doesn't seem to be true at all.

Wasn't referring to retirement.  I know many people who are listed as "disabled" living off SS with little to no input and doing fine.  They have no intentions of getting better.

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You should turn them in at once ! Hell, you may even get a reward. This admin is finally going after cheaters.

I personally know a woman that got turned in for working "off the books' and drawing disability. I did not turn her in, as I was not aware at the time. but she got into a world of trouble and had to end up paying back everything she drew for all those years.

She and her husband both are big Republicans BTW, and I don't even like to get into a discussion of any kind with them.

You should turn them in at once ! Hell, you may even get a reward. This admin is finally going after cheaters.

I personally know a woman that got turned in for working "off the books' and drawing disability. I did not turn her in, as I was not aware at the time. but she got into a world of trouble and had to end up paying back everything she drew for all those years.

She and her husband both are big Republicans BTW, and I don't even like to get into a discussion of any kind with them.

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My laugh of the day.

the problem with that solution,mad,is : it is too simple , too logical , and makes entirely too much sense.

seeweed ,thought-provoking stuff on your part......." woe to the hypocrites who would strain out a gnat and swallow a camel "........

Back in the late 80's my boss wrote a letter to the AARP suggesting that retirees like himself, a multi millionaire, should have the option of voluntarily opting out of receiving social security checks. The idea being less expenditures would leave more money left in the fund for others who really needed it. A very noble idea, I thought. He received a nasty response basically saying " we don't care if you need it or not, take the dang money!" 

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When I was a kid is was not uncommon for some of the older men to draw a pension from the government for fighting in WWl and getting gassed.

One particular man I know, drew that pension. He owned a store and a junkyard, and was by all accounts quite well off financially. In either 62 or 63 he got a letter from Veterans telling him that they figured he should have overcome some of the effects of the gas and they were going to reduce his pension.

He returned the letter , and told them that he didn't really need the money, they should just stop the whole thing.

They gave him a raise !  - true story