coldwarrior on March 28, 2011 at 7:07 PM

10,000 – Baby Boomers Retire: As the year 2011 began on Jan. 1, the oldest members of the Baby Boom generation celebrated their 65th birthday. In fact, on that day, today, and for every day for the next 19 years, 10,000 baby boomers will reach age 65.

I couldn’t wait until 65, so took my $669 a month at 62, and getting on medicare this June. Someone has been taking money from these 10,000 per day for decades now, and making promises. Bashing entitlement programs just isn’t going to work…

Social Security is a little different. It does not add a penny to the deficit.

Major: All expenditures contribute to a deficit.
Minor: Social Security payments are expenditures.
Conclusion: Social Security payments contribute to a deficit.

Karmi on March 28, 2011 at 6:28 PM

Communities, local groups, churches, counties and states can easily take care of their own if they all did not have the heel of federal government on their necks. Lutheran Aid, Catholic Services, and the like provided the bulk of assistance to the disadvantaged for decades long before the federal government decided to take the reins.

Do not underestimate the ability of individuals to care for their own, if permitted. And it would not cost hundreds of billions to do so. The War on Poverty and The Great Society Programs were all designed to make Washington DC be the granter and giver of any and all assistance. And they have all failed if one uses their original yardsticks of success as a template. The overall result a massive bureaucracy that is more interested in its own than in actually solving the problem….and the service workers unions who control hiring and firing among the various agencies; and a bureaucracy that has no way of identifying who may be bilking the system, as there are nearly a hundred million Americans who receive some sort of entitlement assistance from the federal government at any given moment.

Such breeds fraud, plain and simple.

I’d rather give my money to the entity closest to the problem and closest to home than have Washington take my money and provide no explanation as to how it was spent.

Besides, there is no “generally support welfare” clause in the Constitution, so the federal government shouldn’t be involved at all.

The right needs to have some kind of a rolling list of solutions site, IMHO, because bashing entitlement programs isn’t going to solve anything.

PATHETIC

I suspect that there are a lot of false disability claims on the Social Security system.

Special Forces Grunt on March 28, 2011 at 4:17 PM

My contention has always been, we have the money, we have the heart, to help the least among us. We can take care of the mentally ill, the abused, the less fortunate, with no problem…if we got rid of the fraud and the scammers.
What the liberals have done is allow the suffer, to continue to suffer so that they can feel good.
Our society is set up to handle those poor unfortunate souls who really do need assistance…but our government, how it is now, only makes them suffer more each day.

Since the US is running $1.6 trillion deficits at the moment, Treasury has to borrow money to pay off those notes, which means it does indeed add lots of pennies to the deficit, in real terms, as well as to the national debt.

If Tricky Dick wants to count pennies, our national debt is now 1.4 QUADRILLION pennies.

Now, it seems to me that I’ve seen most chair bound people get sideways to a door or put their back to the door if they’re not being assisted. I also ought to mention that this individual was wheeling in from the parking lot and was unaccompanied. Oh, the individual appeared to be in his late thirties.

I suspect that there are a lot of false disability claims on the Social Security system.

Bet you didn’t think you would get stuck with the tab, didya? Tricky Dicky is trying to continue the scam.

If you think that a scam is being perpetrated and you are looking to see who the Mark is: YOU are the Mark.

You are the Mark ‘grandchildren’ paying up for this scam.

Time to wake up!

As for the larger tax revenue position, it has dropped well below 20%…because we’re disproportionately taxing the “rich” and effectively not taxing the “poor” at all at a time the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy (™ Tom Blumer) is destroying the “rich” and making everybody poor.

steveegg on March 28, 2011 at 2:33 PM

But wait I thought that “everybody should have some skin in the game”. That’s what my President told me.

Move forward.

Durbin doesn’t give a rip about the “children” who are going to have to pay the bill – he’ll be dead & gone (or at least retired) before then, right? It’s all about now – meaning, it’s all about HIM and his party’s current electoral prospects.

Social Security is a little different. It does not add a penny to the deficit.

Hey, I didn’t know Durbin was auditioning for a job as a comedian.