Quote:
Originally Posted by TMI Guy
Which government entitlements do you disapprove of?
-Food stamps
-Unemployment assistance
-Veteran's benefits (to include military retirement pay and health care)
-Social Security
-Medicare
-Mortgage interest deduction
-Crop subsidies for farmers
-Exploration tax credits for large oil companies
Or pick any others (or all of them).
Generally, people like the entitlements that they get, and begrudge the entitlements they are not eligible for that others get. During a televised town hall debate about Obamacare before it was voted on in the Congress, I was amused by the elderly woman who stood up and loudly proclaimed that government involvement in healthcare was un-American and evil, and that she refused to be part of or pay for a government healthcare program. When asked if she would henceforth stop using her Medicare benefits, she seemed genuinely befuddled.
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TMI:
The problem with many folks in this country is they expect the "rich" to pay for everything. What ever happened to shared responsibility and "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country"?
Regardless of where one stands politically, if the US fiscal situation is viewed from an economic perspective it is clear that it is unsustainable and I am confident that when it begins to unravel a deep crisis will occur very quickly. The irony of many proposed spending cuts is that they are not even intended to address today's expense structure but rather they are proposed to slow the rate of future expense growth. To illustrate: Imagine if your household were running a deficit today and after much angst the solution you came up with was to slow your spending in 2018 but after much debate your wife wouldn't let you implement that solution because it seemed to extreme! That is what is happening in this country and it scares me to death. I am willing to do something on the revenue side but only after the welfare state mentality of this country is addressed. Finally, I think the reason Obama won is simple: he was the politician that promised the most to various constituencies and even after all the promises the vote was very close. For the good of the country I pray that he will move to the center but I don't have high expectations.