Follow the money

[DJofSD]

Take this (http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/followthemoney/#.UEj5A017tzA.twitter) short quiz about spending on the federal level. It's 5 questions long. Come on, I dare you.

[Dave Schwartz]

DJ, I fear you are about to get mugged. Look to your left...

[alydar]

I am trying to understand what is the value of a quiz with simple obvious answers.


I would be more interested in hearing what your solution to the problem is.

[thaskalos]

Any study that includes Social Security on the same list with things like "food stamps, unemployment benefits and housing assistance" cannot be taken seriously.

[BlueShoe]

Five for five. The only one that required much thought was the last one. Any person that missed any one of the first four is badly out of touch.

[Hoofhearted]

Any study that emanates from that arch-conservative pro-corporate "Heritage" lobbyist organisation isn't worthy of consideration.

[Tom]

Any study that includes Social Security on the same list with things like "food stamps, unemployment benefits and housing assistance" cannot be taken seriously.

MSNBC would disagree with you:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10609044/ns/us_news/t/federal-entitlement-programs-more-costly/

And US News and World Reports:
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-cuts-be-made-to-domestic-social-programs-to-protect-the-defense-budget/entitlement-programs-not-defense-the-source-of-deficit-crisis

[Tom]

Any study that emanates from that arch-conservative pro-corporate "Heritage" lobbyist organisation isn't worthy of consideration.

Try discussing the truth of the 5 questions...or else YOU are not worthy of consideration.

Expose the lies here.......

[thaskalos]

MSNBC would disagree with you:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10609044/ns/us_news/t/federal-entitlement-programs-more-costly/

And US News and World Reports:
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-cuts-be-made-to-domestic-social-programs-to-protect-the-defense-budget/entitlement-programs-not-defense-the-source-of-deficit-crisis
I don't care who disagrees with me...Social Security cannot be compared with government welfare aid programs.

Are Social Security recipients the same as those who receive welfare benefits?

[Dave Schwartz]

Any study that includes Social Security on the same list with things like "food stamps, unemployment benefits and housing assistance" cannot be taken seriously.

Gotta go with Thask on this one.

Just not the same thing.

I saw something the other day that claimed new retirees would be the first in history to receive less from SS than they put in. I do not see how SS could ever be considered entitlement.

[Striker]

I don't care who disagrees with me...Social Security cannot be compared with government welfare aid programs.

Are Social Security recipients the same as those who receive welfare benefits?
Completely agree thask. How are unemployment benefits compared to welfare also? You could argue the fact that they were extended for some people from the normal 26 weeks to 90 plus weeks on the taxpayers dime but other than that, they are paid for by the employer.

[Overlay]

Gotta go with Thask on this one.

Just not the same thing.

I saw something the other day that claimed new retirees would be the first in history to receive less from SS than they put in. I do not see how SS could ever be considered entitlement.
I agree that SS recipients worked and paid into the system for what they are receiving, but the underlying demographic/accounting basis of the system is (or has become over time) obviously seriously flawed and in need of fundamental change, or else the system would not be in the trouble that it is.

[fast4522]

If you remove the level of spending on wars, and remove Obamacare this economy will come roaring back and all items in the budget will be less of a problem. After that long term repairs will have to be worked out to make current programs solvent. The longer there is an apparent crisis situation looming nothing good can come from our lawmakers. Fix the economy first stupid, let Europe burn for all I care. If everyone drives this home you will see change, and not what the socialist in this country want.

[newtothegame]

I am trying to understand what is the value of a quiz with simple obvious answers.


I would be more interested in hearing what your solution to the problem is.
Alydar,
I think you answered your own question.......
If you and I can see how "simple and obvious" the problems are, why can't those who we elect?????
Or, is it your contention that seeing the problem and addressing the problem are two different things?
I would argue that those in Washington do NOT want to fix the problems. In order to fix the problems, there are tough but realistic solutions. This would hurt the party who tries to fix it in terms of votes.....there we are back to the pandering for votes thing.
People in this country need to understand the parties in congress are not and have not been "for the people" for sometime. That will be the only true solution to the problems!!

[Tom]

Gotta go with Thask on this one.

Just not the same thing.

I saw something the other day that claimed new retirees would be the first in history to receive less from SS than they put in. I do not see how SS could ever be considered entitlement.

It is either an entitlement or a tax. Take your pick.
If I do not get out of what I put in plus market interest, it is a tax for me.
If others get out it more than they put in, it is entitlement.

[dartman51]

Moody's has announced that if MediCare and MediCaid, aren't seriously reformed soon, there will probably be another CREDIT RATING downgrade coming in 2013. :ThmbUp:

[HUSKER55]

how can social security and medicare be an entitlement when according to the social security web page the expenses today are paid by the tax dollars collected today.

If we are coming up short then a national sales tax to fund social security would be the answer because even the illegals would have to pay in and if they object then they can go back where they came from.

This also begs the question, whee n the world did all the money go? how much is administration?

[mostpost]

A dumb quiz that makes dumb assumptions. Question one assumes that all "entitlements" are equal. Some entitlements are not entitlements at all. Social Security and Medicare are paid for by the recipients throughout their working lives. Those people are merely receiving a return on their investment.

Question two has more holes than a thousand pounds of Swiss cheese. First, it ignores the fact that-except for Obama-Republican Presidents have accrued far the greater deficits. This is clearly shown in the graph to the left.
DEMOCRATS
Kennedy -1.0; Johnson -0.9; Carter -2.4; Clinton -0.1
REPUBLICANS
Nixon -1.6; Ford -3.5; Reagan -4.3; Bush I -4.3; Bush II -3.2.

Second it ignores what it was that caused the deficits. Obama was faced with fixing the policies of the most incompetent administration in our history. Had Bush properly regulated banks we would not have needed $787B in Tarp bailout funds. Had he not gone to war in Iraq we would not have had to pay for $1T in costs for that war. Had he not cut taxes we would have had $1T to pay items we now had to go into debt to pay for.

Question three: Yes we are paying more interest on the debt now than ever before. Why is that? Because the debt is bigger now than ever before. There is only one answer to the question of whose fault that is. REPUBLICANS.

The debt increased more than 400% under Reagan and Bush I. It increased by less than 40% under Clinton; and by almost 200% under Bush II. So most of whatever interest we are paying can be tied to those Republican presidencies

The answer to question four is obvious. What is not so obvious is what those reforms should be. Turning Social Security into a voluntary savings plan based on stock market investment is a terrible idea. Removing the cap on contributions is an excellent idea-one that would keep Social Security solvent into infinity.

Making Medicare a voucher plan is so bad I can not even describe it.

Question five claims that Obamacare will cost $500B in new taxes. Be sure to note that is over the next ten years so 50B each year. It does not say how much Obamacare will save in lower average premiums due to thirty million new insureds paying premiums. Or how much we will save because millions will no longer use hospital emergency rooms as their primary physician. Or what we will save because people will go to doctors sooner and minor ailments will not evolve into major ones.

All in all, the whole thing was just an attempt- a poor one-to advance the Heritage Foundation's ultra conservative agenda.

[fast4522]

Servicing the national debt is a huge and growing concern, hyper inflation is here in its early stages and will start to spike upward sharply soon.
Entitlement programs are a huge and growing concern, making new entitlement programs like Obamacare was a very irresponsible because the current entitlement programs not be solvent only adds to a growing spending problem, not a revenue problem. Everything has been done to not repair what we have going forward but rather to imbalance our system for complete takeover. Just listen to that foul monster Henry Kissinger talk of the crisis as being what is needed for President Obama for a "NEW WORLD ORDER" to solve things on a global scale. You my fellow American's have let Cockroaches infest our way of live, and if you do not move to fix this problem in November you will dream of this often.

[BlueShoe]

All in all, the whole thing was just an attempt- a poor one-to advance the Heritage Foundation's ultra conservative agenda.
No, it is a serious attempt to address the very real economic problems the nation faces, but of course the Left never sees it that way. According to liberals and such places as the DailyKos, MoveOn, and the Democratic Underground, we should increase spending, not decrese it, and of course, if we just follow the sage advice of Paul Krugman and the New York Times, it will lead our nation back to prosperity. :rolleyes: :ThmbDown:

[Tom]

Let's get more in hock to China.
Seems like a really sound plan to me.
What could go wrong?
After all, Obama got his already. Tony took good care of him in Windy City.

[tbwinner]

Here is why SOCIAL SECURITY is considered an entitlement.

The Treasury has been borrowing from the SS Trust Fund for years in the form of T-bonds, bills, etc. as we all know.

So the SS Trust Fund basically has no money, only IOUs.

Retirees go to collect their payments but the SS Trust fund has NO money! So it has to collect on the IOUs owed by the Treasury. Only the Treasury has no money, so it has to borrow more to pay whats needed at SS.

The Government basically created an Entitlement by doing this, by borrowing against the SS Trust Fund and using/wasting that money elsewhere, eventually all needed to be paid back.

This is how it was explained to a large group last night by Erskine Bowles, who is an advisor to the Obama Administration on debt reduction. I happened to sit in on his talk to ISU Students last night as I am now working in the area. From what I understand he is also a Democrat who called Paul Ryan's budget plan sensible.

I am no Economics major, but I believe what he is saying as making sense that SS is an entitlement........and of course it could have been avoided.