Posted on 11/25/2012 3:45:32 PM PST by plain talk
It may be unpopular to say so, but it is true: the U.S. is very close to, if not past, the tipping point at which the majority of the people are net beneficiaries of big government — or so they think. People who receive a check from the government may see voting for a smaller government as contrary to their best interest. If they don’t pay taxes, why should they care about a tax increase?
Perceptions are, however, deceiving.”Healthcare reform,” as the (Un)Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is billed, probably shows more clearly than anything else how most Americans, including Romney’s notorious 47%, are harmed by government “benefits.”
Lower wage earners, who produce real goods or provide a service their fellow Americans value, pay for those benefits even if they’re not liable for federal income tax. Fifteen percent is taken right off the top of their earnings for the Social Security/Medicare tax. This is 100% a tax, and 0% an investment. It is 100% spent, immediately, on other people’s entitlements, with a politician’s promise that the workers may get an entitlement someday, paid for by future workers — if they and the program survive long enough.
All Americans, including the working poor, will, as early as 2013, be hit with the medical device tax and the rest of some 18 ObamaCare-related tax hikes amounting to perhaps $500 billion. Starting in 2014 is the ObamaTax proper, the individual and employer mandate.
(Excerpt) Read more at medcitynews.com ...
As a vet, I put my life on the line for my country. My V.A. loan in 1972 was earned and cost the tax payers nothing as I repaid the loan ahead of schedule.
Furthermore anybody who thinks S.S. should fold immediately and not issue any more checks, should absolutely refuse to accept theirs when they become eligible, including the $255 Social Security pays for "burial expenses".
Oh yes, she did receive the $255 to bury my dad.
Even if the program is still around in 30 years, I have no intention of collecting a dime. I don’t want to have to explain to God why I thought it would be okay to accept blood-soaked money from thieves, gamblers, drunkards, Sodomites, fornicators, and murderers. My spirit is more precious to me than a measly decade of unprofitable loafing with stolen prosperity instead of working honestly with my two hands to earn my keep.
SS is not an annuity, nor is it an investment account. Benefit payments from the program now exceed total inputs, for two years running. You may think whatever you like about averages, propaganda, etc., but the fact remains that the program is insolvent.
You may think whatever you like, but that doesn’t change how money and financial systems work. You may use a mayonnaise jar as your investment account, but the US government does not. You have been listening to the talking heads too long, go take some accounting courses and learn to think for yourself.
I think you are the one who needs to read a bit more on the topic. Social Security recipients receive more in benefits than they paid in. Social Security is now in the red, and has been so for the past two years. Consensus is that the current situation is unsustainable and that, without reform, the bleeding will increase until the program is running at a 20% loss by 2030. That’s the most cheery estimate I found. What leads YOU to believe that Social Security is solvent?
I’ll cheerfully opt out of Social Security! Let me keep my contributions and invest them myself, thanks.
Well said. Too many around here are so emotionally invested in the concept of receiving Social Security that they can’t see that taking Social Security is no different than taking SNAP, EBT, EITC, Obamaphones, or any of the other myriad “freebies” from Uncle Sugar.
Their liberal handlers will tell them that it’s the fault of “the rich” or “republicans” that they can’t get the healthcare they want, on demand, for free.
And they’ll believe it.
It is my experience that sheeperals faithfully believe that 0bamacare means free healthcare on demand,
and any challenge to that belief is simply rejected.
They never will. Already healthcare costs gave gone up, just since the election. And the O voter I was talking to last night has noticed but his solution is more Obamacare faster.
What gets me is the acronym “TANF”.
“TEMPORARY Aid for Needy FAMILIES”
What it really is is GASM.
“Generational Aid for Single Mothers”
“It is my experience that sheeperals faithfully believe that 0bamacare means free healthcare on demand, and any challenge to that belief is simply rejected.”
Yes, that jibes with a lot of what I’ve seen. And even if they vaguely understand the notion that nothing is “free,” they believe that “rich people” will be forced to pay for it from some bottomless “stash” that they’ve accumulated by robbing poor people.
I hope I live long enough to see this all crash down. I’ll point at them and laugh, even if they’re too stupid to know why.
I just attended the Medicine X conference at Stanford this weekend where we learned of a 2012 Merrit Hawkings study showing that 47% of physicians under 40 would retire today if given the opportunity.
That's a catastrophic number.
http://drwes.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-growing-culture-of-hostile.html
Would it be fair to apply that 2nd 47% group to the first 47% group?
I’ll tell you what, whenever I hear politicians talk about reforming SS in some fashion or another, and say how oh people over 55 or whatever nothing will change I just want to scream. I’m 53, a month away from 54. Those *#!ers took a big chunk of my paycheck my entire working life and they better give me my damn money back.
I actually did turn down the burial benefit when I lost my first wife to cancer. When I saw that I would have to wait in line for hours to apply for it I realized that I couldn’t afford to take it because at that time I still had a business going and could earn more than $255. in the time I would have spent applying for it.
Frankly I think they are wrong ~ theft is wrong ~ turning your back on a well armed man you've just stolen things from ~ well, that's wrong too. AND STUPID.
So, they're going to try to walk off with the money, and it's not a small sum either ~ there's $6 trillion there, and with proper accounting probably even more. Ron Paul wanted the Federal Reserve audited ~ but what about Social Security?
How many think that Michelle will also try to run?
At least she isn’t as OLD as Hillary.
They are staffing up for the the testing that will occur next year for tax professionals to aquire a new federal license and Earned Income Credit checking / enforcement.”””
Are you saying that the tax PREPARER is going to be responsible for the accuracy of the person’s information? This is nuts. They are accountants—not Law enforcement officers and they have no such authority to be cleaning out the EIC cheats.
How about those ‘Mall tax preparers’ who pop up for 4 months every year? There is no way you can even hire enough people to do such returns with that sword hanging over their head.
IF accountants refuse to prepare returns with EIC involvement, then the public is left to do it themselves and they cannot do that. They have not been taught basic math, much less tax return data.
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