You list Medicare and Social Security as “welfare”. Millions of people have been forced to pay into those two programs. You leave out Medicaid. Now that IS “welfare”. The same people who have paid into the Social Security and Medicare funds have also paid the taxes to support Medicaid. Most of the recipients of Medicaid haven’t paid a penny into the system. You should be ashamed to call Medicare and Social Security “welfare”.
Sure, Medicaid is also welfare.
Sorry if you don’t like my definition. But my definition of welfare is “transfer payments”, when the fruits of hard work of one group of people is transferred to a bunch of non-working ingrates - and Social Security fits that definition just as much as Medicaid.
The days of the “Lock Box” are long-gone, as well as any “trust fund”. It was all spent years ago. For the people retired now and those retiring, their “Social Security Tax” is nothing other than another income tax, it all goes into the same place and it is spent as it comes in and then some.
It is welfare...and since even conservatives DEMAND their welfare, nothing will change. I’m not an idiot. I know that there is NOTHING that I can do to change their attitude of entitlement to money that doesn’t exist and must become debt on my kids - but that’s why I support paying for it now - or at least going in that direction. To keep this country from collapsing, we MUST break the cycling of stealing from future generations.
“Millions of people have been forced to pay into those two programs.”
No, they were forced to pay taxes, in the same way they’re forced to pay other taxes. Welfare at the other end only connects to what you paid before in your head. Which is exactly what the New Dealers wanted you to think, still more evidence they are gamesmen and Pubs are the Stupid Party.
I don’t support a VAT, but BobL Head has a point. All the money we’ve paid into Medicare and Social Security is GONE. It is already spent. They survive by robbing current taxpayers whom they will, eventually, not be able to “re-pay.”
And Medicaid is welfare and I’d be happy to see it cease to exist.