[RFEngineer]

“I get a “government check” for my veteran’s disability.”

Government checks of all kinds - in aggregate - skew the recipients attitudes to be more favorable to the status quo and the continued receipt (and growth) of those government checks. Do you honestly believe otherwise? Remember, I said “in aggregate” and not making any statement of individuals.

The point is that in the end somebody has to make the money that is taken to fund the government check. We don’t have enough of those “sombody’s”. 49% receive welfare, according to recent statistics. There are also millions of government checks, like yours, that are not welfare that also must be funded by “somebody else”. The percentage is way over 50% of folks that receive “government checks” of all kinds - whether “deserved” or not. Use whatever standard you wish to determine who should get a check.

We do not have the money to pay them all. We do not have the political will to not pay them all, in fact we are making a concerted effort as a country to increase the number of people that get a “government check” of some sort.

I’m for reducing government to the point where we are paying down our debt, not growing it. I am one of the dwindling group of “somebody else”. I’m also a veteran.

If you can make the case that you should be given money that is taken from me - that I earned - no matter who you are and what the reason - feel free to make the case.

The conversation quickly becomes awkward in both directions.

I think we should have that conversation before we meet our collective doom and all the checks stop.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Government checks of all kinds - in aggregate - skew the recipients attitudes to be more favorable to the status quo and the continued receipt (and growth) of those government checks."

I have followed your conversation with interest. As I am a retired Marine. After putting in 22 years of various duties including the drill field, combat and humping the hills in the infantry I feel I can safely say that I earned my government check. My fellow veterans that have gotten wounded in combat defending this great country have by all means "earned" their disability check as far as I'm concerned.

My beef with government checks are the ones who haven't "earned" them. People who get government checks simply because they are poor or without a job. These people used to be taken care of by charitable organizations within the community. Now the government has co-opted those community organizations and they are but an arm of the government. Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. I am in several veterans organizations and I've seen with my own eyes the level of charity the American people have. America worked best when the government was not involved in the charity. Those government checks should be eliminated. The ones to veterans who have retired (i.e. did 20+ years) or who have service connected disabilities have been earned IMO. Those were incentives given to us to sign up to defend our country against all enemies foreign and domestic. It is one of the reasons we have in the constitution as a function of the federal government (national defense).

[Tammy8]

As far as I know, no one is getting a monthly check just for being a Veteran. There are indeed things that qualify certain Veterans to get checks, and rightly so.

I have no idea why when the issue of government payouts comes up people always leap to Social Security and Veterans as a place to cut, top of the list- WHY?

I freely admit to drawing a line in the sand with politicians and people like you that want to cut government checks. Why don’t you first get the illegals off the dole? Are you doing anything at all in that direction? Have you ever? How about getting the real moochers off? Do you raise these points with your elected officials? Until the illegals and the moochers are off the dole, I personally don’t want to hear a word about Veteran’s payments or retired or disabled people that worked and paid in to Social Security.

When people start with people who have served their country and qualified for Veteran’s benefits, or people that have worked many years and paid into a system that they were forced to pay into- to me that shoots all credibility that the person bringing that up is serious about cutting monies.

Don’t you understand that the libs are the ones that have lumped together Veterans and seniors with deadbeats? The liberals change the language- call it all entitlements no matter what it is...you fell for it. They call illegal aliens immigrants for the same reason. Confuse people and they will eat their own first it seems.