Conservatives: If You Could, Would You Eliminate Entitlements? (regular, border, solutions)
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When Bush tried to get the Congress to address the issue.
Barney Frank, September 28, 2004
"Thank you for contacting me. I am strongly against the President’s effort to weaken Social Security and I am playing a leading role in Congress in our resistance to these efforts. I am enclosing a copy of an article I wrote in the Boston Globe last fall which gives my general position on the matter. The fact is that if Social Security is credited with every penny that was paid in and will be paid in for it - as it certainly should be - there is no crisis, and there does not even to begin to be any difficulty until forty years or more from now. There is plenty of time for us to make the small adjustments that might need to be made in this system.
Congressman Barney Frank - MA-04 (http://www.house.gov/frank/docs/response-opposed-privatize-ss.html - broken link)
Consider the source. This is the same moron that said there were no problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005.
Honest to God, I'm not trolling. This is a real question.
I hear a lot of conservatives say that the government should only provide for defense and little else. So here's my question: If you had the power, would you eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or other entitlements, since, in your view, they aren't part of the Constitution's enumerated powers, and therefore unconstitutional? Or do you dislike entitlements because the federal govt. runs them and not states? I look forward to any responses.
mackinac
Absolutely. But then, I'm a libertarian, so that shouldn't be surprising (to be perfectly honest, I'm a minarchist, but there is no need to split hairs).
Now, if some state-level government decides to try implementing these programs on their own, and actually finds a sustainable way to fund it, that's cool with me. I, of course, will never live there, as I don't agree with it. That is what this country was supposed to be about.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Countries without military capability cannot easily undertake "wars of choice" or wars whose purposes evolve, as in Iraq, from dismantling wars of mass destruction to promoting democracy. The last five major wars that the United States undertook (Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq) were ones in which the U.S. attacked countries that had not directly attacked the United States.
I certainly wouldn't just shut them down overnight but I absolutely would begin transferring these responsibilities to the private sector.
stop collecting the social security taxes from people who aren't going to get any benefit from it.
let them keep their own money and invest as they see fit. i bet a lot more people would start watching their money if they actually saw more of it.....
I am a conservative republican and I have never said get rid of entitlement programs. That would be a stupid idea turning us into Mexico or worse.
But things to get rid of:
Department of Education
Department of Labor
Department of Energy
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Food stamps
Unemployment insurance beyond 26 weeks.
SSI for alcoholics and drug addicts.
Government pensions, make everyone join social security and that includes your congressman and the president.
All government unions need to be kicked to the curb.
Cut defense spending by 50% and bring troops home tomorrow.
Lose the department of education, they teach that cavemen rode dinosaurs in Texas.
HUD? Homeless populations will boom.
Food stamps? Cut them for alcoholics and drug addicts, but they provide a means to improvement in the lives of students and the lower class as they rise to the middle class. My family used them in the 90s and now my parents have a combined six figure income and no longer do. They put food in my stomach as a kid when my family could hardly afford rent in Appalachia.
I agree with you about defense spending though. Entirely.
Honest to God, I'm not trolling. This is a real question.
I hear a lot of conservatives say that the government should only provide for defense and little else. So here's my question: If you had the power, would you eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or other entitlements, since, in your view, they aren't part of the Constitution's enumerated powers, and therefore unconstitutional? Or do you dislike entitlements because the federal govt. runs them and not states? I look forward to any responses.
Honest to God, I'm not trolling. This is a real question.
I hear a lot of conservatives say that the government should only provide for defense and little else. So here's my question: If you had the power, would you eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or other entitlements, since, in your view, they aren't part of the Constitution's enumerated powers, and therefore unconstitutional? Or do you dislike entitlements because the federal govt. runs them and not states? I look forward to any responses.
mackinac
Yes, I would. I would phase them all out so people aren't voting for their freebies on Election Day. Because that is what they are doing. The government bureaucracy that exists to support the entitlement culture would then also disappear saving taxpayers some more money.
I would only keep some kind of major disability entitlement for people who are bedridden or not mobile and unable to work.
Immediately, I would like to see a reduction in food stamps for all parents whose kids are fed in school on the taxpayers' dime. If the taxpayers are feeding your kids 2 - 3 meals a day, then you shouldn't be getting food stamps for them for the days of the week that there is school.
Also immediately, I would like to see welfare recipients checks offset by a paycheck for "doing the jobs Americans won't do." Guess what, there is no such thing? That means welfare would only supplement the paycheck.
Second, I would like all tax deductions/exemptions eliminated. If that's a no-go, then I want them eliminated for children born out of wedlock. Stop incentivizing babies for the parent who is living on the taxpayer's dime.
Third, eliminate anchor babies.
There needs to be an incentive to improve your lot in life by getting a good education and graduating from high school. Standardized reading and math tests every two years beginning in Elementary School and start leaving kids back again until they pass. I don't care if they are 30 and still in high school. Scr*w their self esteem. Where's their self esteem when they are waiting for their welfare check, their food stamps, their subsidized housing, their medicaid, their free job training? You have a choice: High School Diploma or no freebies for the rest of your life.
Also, eliminate all remedial freshman college classes at public universities/community colleges and for students in private colleges who aren't paying for their own education. If you didn't learn what you were supposed to learn in high school, then you have to go back to high school until you can pass the college requirement. Let property tax payers see which schools are really just passing them through.
I'm for places of worship and community groups doing the charity work, something they do best without red tape. You get a food basket and maybe a place to sleep, not a SNAP card.
Life is a series of choices. Your goal in life is to maximize your choices. Every bad decision (not graduating high school, doing drugs, getting pregnant out of wedlock, hanging out with a bad crowd, not working) you make puts you on a path of dwindling choices. That's what kids need to be taught in elementary school along with the knowledge that the government will no longer provide a financial safety net when they hit 18.
Remember "scared straight?" Well, maybe in elementary school they need to be scared straight by the homeless, struggling teenaged mothers, do community service at a food bank, visit the projects, do an overnight in jail, hang with the junkies, etc.
Do you have another source. That one says Obamacare saved Medicare, that's a load!
How about CNN and Geithner and Sebelius?
"Social Security will head into the red this year, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday.
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's official: Social Security will reach its tipping point this year.For the first time in nearly 30 years, the system will pay out more benefits than it receives in payroll taxes both this year and next, the government officials who oversee Social Security said on Thursday."
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