....just keep that cash register ringing!
Posted on 03/13/2011 8:02:16 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The anti-government “throw-the-bums-out” crowds have had their chance to speak out on how to curtail the deficit and what to do with those hated entitlements that are the antithesis of the America they pine for. A recent WSJ/NBC News poll provided a glimpse of just how dependent on big government entitlements Americans have become–even among the Tea Party. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone watching the slow shift of the American mindset from citizen, to consumer, to ward of the State over the past century.
According to the Wall Street Journal who co-sponsored the poll, “Americans across all age groups and ideologies said by large margins that it was ‘unacceptable’ to make significant cuts in entitlement programs in order to reduce the federal deficit.”
No wonder President Obama in his State of the Union speech only paid lip service to Social Security and Medicare reform, mentioning each by name only once in over 7,000 words of text. He knows what Americans are really about as summed up in the old adage: “It all depends on whose ox is being gored.”
And the poll exposes a potentially discrediting hypocrisy within the Tea Party movement who claim to be for smaller government and a return to a libertarian Nirvana. Consider: by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, self-described Tea Partiers declared significant cuts to Social Security “unacceptable.”
In fact, as the poll reveals, less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the mounting deficit about which they cry warnings of impending doom.
Before Tea Partiers accuse me of trashing them, although I am not one of them, I have defended the movement many times when I felt it unfairly attacked by the left. You see, I agree whole-heartedly with their deficit concerns. But, unlike them, I am willing to give up my benefits to set things right. They clearly are not, Gadsden flags and tri-corn hats notwithstanding. So I find myself in the minority…even among my own kind it seems.
Despite the fact that such entitlements are already in the red, when asked directly if they thought cuts to Medicare were necessary to “significantly reduce” the deficit, 18% of respondents said yes, while 54% said no; the rest were not sure or had no opinion. On Social Security, 22% said cuts would be needed, while 49% said they weren’t.
Well then…now what guys? What’s your plan then?
Ah, the poll goes on to say that there are two solutions that more than half of those responding would support. And they reveal that many Americans are, in fact, quite selfish.
Solution one: More than half support extending the retirement age to 69 by 2075. Or as I like to call it, the “deal with it after I’m dead” solution. Of course a person in their 40s and above in 2011 would have no problem with this. I am 43, in good health, but I am not Methuselah. The odds of me being anywhere but with my Maker in 64 years are pretty slim. So, even though many Americans rant against saddling the future generations with a deficit, they’ll be damned if they don’t first cash in all their Social Security chips before they check out. Very noble.
Solution two: Over 60% of those polled support reducing payments to wealthier Americans. In other words, when it comes to their benefits at risk, it’s time to what? Spread the wealth by reducing my benefits so theirs will remain intact because I made more money. Penalize the rich? Honestly, it matters little to me as I expect reduced benefits anyway. It’s just the principle…and the Tea Party and similar movements are very much about “principle.” Until it comes down to sacrificing their precious benefits, that is. Then they suddenly gravitate towards that very wealth redistribution model over which they crucified Mr. Obama during the campaign as personified by Joe “The Plummer.”
So what this latest poll shows is that when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are, most Americans, even Nobamanauts, show their true colors and demonstrate that we are hopelessly mired in an entitlement culture that in the end will only be solved by one guy: Mr. Mathematics. An American retiring today will have put roughly $114,000 in contributions into Medicare but will receive over $355,000 in services throughout their ever lengthening retirement. If left unaddressed, this formula will eventually collapse anyway so one way or the other, austerity is a comin’. Tick-tock.
More than seven in 10 tea party backers feared GOP lawmakers would not go far enough in cutting spending. “It may be hard to understand why someone would try to jump off a cliff” to solve the debt crisis, said pollster Bill McInturff of his fellow Republicans, “unless you understand that they are being chased by a tiger, and that tiger is the tea party.” Yet, as his own survey shows, this is a false premise as only one in three will be waving pitchforks. The other two-thirds, suffering from an astounding case of cognitive dissonance, will be cashing their checks. Certainly, the Tea Party verve and libertarian ire that demands “brave measures” from the new Congress to get the deficit under control dissipates dramatically when the firing squad of benefit reductions is trained on them. Then, suddenly, they propose to kick the can down the road to their kids, and to spread the wealth. Sound familiar? “Oh…and keep government out of our lives!” Riiight.
Hypocrisy is not an exclusive property of the far left it seems. So good luck to the GOP in their quest to make significant cuts in the deficit…If they’re serious, I hope they like being one-termers.
LBJ removed Social Security from a “trust fund” and put it into regular spending to give the illusion of a balanced 1969 budget. The American people then voted for Nixon, who turned around and expanded the LBJ programs! The American people don’t read the fine print from politicians.
Sadly many freepers are still in utter denial as t reality in that respect.
The government forcibly taxed them for years, and now they want "what they deserve". There seems to be this thought among many freepers that the federal government is an honorable, trustworthy institution and that promises will be kept. The idea that government put a gun to their head and just completely robbed them seems foreign to many here. They cannot grasp it. They want the mugger to send them monthly checks and are shocked at the thought that this may not actually occur.
Its like Madoffs’ victims demandng all their money back and waiving their monthly statements around.
Did you see my thread about a month ago where P. Schiff got the trustee of SS to admit THERE IS NO TRUST FUND?
“We’ve been TAXED, and the funds have all been spent...”
And guess who spent that money? The politicians. We can start righting the SS ship by confiscating the wealth of all the politcians and attendant leeches who stole that money. Let’s start by confiscating the wealth of LBJ, including all cash and property.
I saw it. The truth is out there, but some refuse to see.
LBJ removed Social Security from a “trust fund” and put it into regular spending to give the illusion of a balanced 1969 budget. The American people then voted for Nixon, who turned around and expanded the LBJ programs! The American people don’t read the fine print from politicians.
Exactly. Anything I would receive would be taxed, printed, or borrowed.
Which is of course why I put in on my list.
....just keep that cash register ringing!
And the delima my family is in now is take off to Costa Rica and retire in luxury for $1,000 a month (husband's choice)or stay on our farm and provide safety and sustenance to our extended family who are all living in the city and will come running to us when and if it collapes.
100% right on the money.
FDR pulled the perfect sting on the populace. In those days, life span was average less than the retirement age, so the gov got to keep all that boodle.
it is still a tax, but now, the unwashed masses got the nerve to live longer, curses, foiled again. What to do, what to do?
Oh, hey, how about we move the retirement age?
Everybody nods in agreement at the wonderful and sage wisdom demonstrated, while they are being stung once again.
Fools.
The interest on money in SS does not exist
The biggest potential liability is Medicare, anyway, which will end up dwarfing Social Security if nothing changes.
I totally agree it needs fixed now.
It won’t “viable” as long as you give people back more than they put in. And that’s what we’re doing on a wide scale.
Spreading the damage to others in not a “fix” and doesn’t make it viable. It is simply more of the welfare state spreading peoples wealth around and then wondering why jobs are disappearing and our economic hole keeps getting deeper...
Mine doesn’t. My insurance through my company is primary and Medicare, if I take it, is secondary. We paid my husband’s Medicare premium for a while but dropped it because my insurance is good enough that we didn’t need it. They said that if we needed to pick it back up we could but my employer doesn’t force it.
Of course, things can change. :-(
Social Insurance tax isn’t just Social Security tax. It includes other taxes too.
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