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Boating All Out

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:10:29 -0500, Boating All Out
wrote:

In article ,
says...

I agree with the idea that we need to raise Revenue and I also agree,
chipping away at small programs is not going to do anything
significant to the deficit. Those are ideological crusades, not
deficit reductions. Deal with that in separate legislation if you need
to.
We need more revenue and we need to make big cuts in spending.
That means higher taxes, less DoD budget and doing something
significant to SS/Medicare. Those are the programs that eat up most of
the government revenue.

There are plenty of "small items" that add up.
On the nondefense discretionary discretionary side for 2010 there's
$660B to scalpel. Defense is $689B.
Knocking $200B total off those is trivial.
Except the crybabies will wail, the lobbyists will get in high gear and
the pols will be paid off.
As I said, the system is broken.
Good example is this newsgroup, where name-calling and opposing "the
other side" is deemed a substitute for common sense.

Defense is low fruit. We spend twice what it should cost to defend
this country.
SS/Medicare need to be bracketed up in age and needs to be means
tested. The reason it was successful for so many years is that they
always had plenty of workers paying for a few recipients, who weren't
really going to live much longer. When the boomers started hitting the
system you had a lot of recipients who will be collecting for 20-30
years and less people paying in. It is also ridiculous that rich
people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates get SS.
Unfortunately then you would just have to admit SS is a welfare
program for old people and abandon the whole idea that it was ever
some kind of pension or insurance.

The Medicare solution is mostly clamping down on costs - Simpson agrees
with me on that. A Medicare tax rate bump will help.
The main problem is the socialist medical/insurance industries.
Drug companies, hospital companies, doctors, etc., all like to crow
about "free enterprise." But they're really already 60% socialists.
Touting "free enterprise" just allows them to stiff American rubes.
About 60% of medical costs in this country is funded by the taxpayer.
Other countries pay half for the same results.

You still don't get SS, because THERE IS NO SS DEFICIT.
SS is $2T in the black! SS taxpayers have already kicked it in.
No matter what your - right wing in this case - ideology, you can't get
around that. The SS Trust Fund is accounted for in black and white.
Everybody knows that.
If not they can go to the SS website to get educated.
That's a U.S. government debt like any other and has to come from
general revenue.
You can count on any change in SS being directed to extending SS Trust
Fund solvency. I don't see that accounted trust fund going away.
There is a limit to American voter stupidity.
Only a right winger would call a paid for old age pension system
"welfare."
All other 1st world countries call their version of SS
"old age pension."
You're welcome to call it what you want because we can freely speak
here. But most Americans who worked all their lives and now collect SS
will just say "**** you" if you tell them they're collecting welfare.
That's the difference between ideology and the real world.
As far as I can see all the other 1st world countries pay richer
benefits than the U.S. system.
Some don't even bother with a separate income stream, but fund it from
general tax revenues.