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I would have confronted the bastards. I probably would have yelled loud enough to melt down their government supplied hearing aids. I too, am a grey breard and do not want anyone messing around with the social security and medical payments I expect to recieve. I am also not very shy and they needed to be confronted.
BTW - Very few Democrats are socialists but I certainly am.
Last edited by GregW; 08-27-2009 at 10:37 AM..
Reason: added line of text
I would have confronted the bastards. I probably would have yelled loud enough to melt down their government supplied hearing aids. I too, am a grey breard and do not want anyone messing around with the social security and medical payments I expect to recieve. I am also not very shy and they needed to be confronted.
BTW - Very few Democrats are socialists but I certainly am.
As everyone is back at school now, I thought I would start taking care of my health a little better than I have for the past 25+ years of being a parent, wanted to relax a bit, take a walk through the park, enjoy the last days of summer, etc. Five minutes into my walk, three elderly gentlemen passed by (walking) - one of them was quite irate; they were apparently discussing politics. One of the gentlemen, said very loudly to his two buddies, "ALL DEMOCRATS ARE SOCIALISTS!"
I just thought to myself as I walked on by, "What do you think you "social" security is, and what do you think your "Medicare" is? Do you think these are government programs?
I just wanted to send out a big "shout-out" to Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Fox News and tell you, "Awesome brain-washing job!" "You betcha"!
P.S. - I live in NE OH. The area where I was walking is a predominantly heavy Democrat voting population with a heavy union presence (although it's been waning for several decades due to companies moving out of the state to avoid both punitive state tax policies as well as being able to employ non-union labor. I am not, nor have I ever been a union employee, I have nothing for or against union labor - I'm just speaking of the demographics of the particular town I heard this remark today). I am willing to bet that all three of these retired elderly gentlemen are enjoying their pension (defined benefit vs. defined contribution, which most of us have today), their social security, and their Medicare.
It's amazing to me how they happily partake of government systems that benefit them, but are poo-poo'ing it for everyone else. The topper on the cake was the one guy's random "shout-out"!!!
I didn't know that I was in Ohio today but that old man could easily have been me.
Do you know that insurance companies dump people on their 65th birthday, to Medicare. No questions asked, just a letter that tells you you are old enough for Medicare and will be transferred there. I didn't even have to do anything but take out some medigap insurance since Medicare doesn't even come close to paying what they are asked for.
Did you know that even at 12 years as a recipient of Medicare I am still paying a tax on it. Yep, the government deducts about $150 dollars from my SS check each month. I also get to pay income taxes on 85% of my SS because my wife works and we report as a group. Whoopee she will retire in a couple of years and I will get a raise, provided there is any money left.
Could you tell me what party was in control of the Congress when both SS and Medicare were established. I have always thought it was the party that wants to take over all healthcare, you know with socialized medicine. Maybe I was wrong about all of that. However, somehow I seem to remember learning that the President who was officially elected about 10 days before my birth was a Democrat and his Brain Trust pushed to get SS. My dad was one of those and my mother was one of those Republicans.
It gets very disconcerting to spend your whole life, well over 50 years paying for all those old people and then being accused of taking socialistic welfare from the government. When you arrive at that age remember that if the Dems in Congress hadn't started spending the SS "surplus" every year there would be over $3 trillion in that fund for SS. Old FDR and his people were really pretty smart but they didn't know that there would be a need for that fund to be spent, first for foreign aid and then just as a part of the general fund instead of kept invested for future generations.
Who was the Presidential candidate of 2008 who said he wanted to redistribute the wealth of the nation. I think he ran for the Democrat party and I know that redistribution of wealth is pure socialism. Maybe that old man wasn't really so stupid in his reasoning. That man did win that election, as I recall.
We just need to get out of the habit of deamonizing the word socialist.
Exactly! That was my point. So many facets of our country are indeed run by the government via our taxes (libraries, schools, etc.). I did NOT appreciate the stupid comment, "All Democrats are socialists" when clearly EVERYONE in our country (regardless of political affiliation) benefits from various government programs that are financed through our collective taxes.
It would also be very helpful for the right-wing pundits to stop using the word, "socialist" so loosely. To add, it would be helpful to stop perverting the word "socialism" (by giving it new and false meaning) when it is clear that our country has some aspects of socialism even though we are NOT a socialist country.
I would have confronted the bastards. I probably would have yelled loud enough to melt down their government supplied hearing aids. I too, am a grey breard and do not want anyone messing around with the social security and medical payments I expect to recieve. I am also not very shy and they needed to be confronted.
BTW - Very few Democrats are socialists but I certainly am.
Greg, now I wish I had been that old man. I am not bashful about making my feelings known and we could have probably had a very rousing radical argument. I am several years into Social Security and Medicare but I am still a pretty good man. We may have been able to have an old man fight if we got mad enough.
Its true. All democrats are socialist and all republicans are racist. At least this is what I've been told.
That is so right but as one of those far right people ( that is what lefties think I am) I have also been called a socialist by some lefties. I guess I am just a socialist racist Republican.
I didn't know that I was in Ohio today but that old man could easily have been me.
Do you know that insurance companies dump people on their 65th birthday, to Medicare. No questions asked, just a letter that tells you you are old enough for Medicare and will be transferred there. I didn't even have to do anything but take out some medigap insurance since Medicare doesn't even come close to paying what they are asked for.
Did you know that even at 12 years as a recipient of Medicare I am still paying a tax on it. Yep, the government deducts about $150 dollars from my SS check each month. I also get to pay income taxes on 85% of my SS because my wife works and we report as a group. Whoopee she will retire in a couple of years and I will get a raise, provided there is any money left.
Could you tell me what party was in control of the Congress when both SS and Medicare were established. I have always thought it was the party that wants to take over all healthcare, you know with socialized medicine. Maybe I was wrong about all of that. However, somehow I seem to remember learning that the President who was officially elected about 10 days before my birth was a Democrat and his Brain Trust pushed to get SS. My dad was one of those and my mother was one of those Republicans.
It gets very disconcerting to spend your whole life, well over 50 years paying for all those old people and then being accused of taking socialistic welfare from the government. When you arrive at that age remember that if the Dems in Congress hadn't started spending the SS "surplus" every year there would be over $3 trillion in that fund for SS. Old FDR and his people were really pretty smart but they didn't know that there would be a need for that fund to be spent, first for foreign aid and then just as a part of the general fund instead of kept invested for future generations.
Who was the Presidential candidate of 2008 who said he wanted to redistribute the wealth of the nation. I think he ran for the Democrat party and I know that redistribution of wealth is pure socialism. Maybe that old man wasn't really so stupid in his reasoning. That man did win that election, as I recall.
First off, my sincere apologies for my complete ignorance concerning your "suffering". Let me make it clear that I have no problem with social security or Medicare. I know how it got started, who started it, and why. Finally, I never said that the "old man" (I believe that I referred to them as "elderly gentlemen" vs. "old men") was stupid.
As everyone is back at school now, I thought I would start taking care of my health a little better than I have for the past 25+ years of being a parent, wanted to relax a bit, take a walk through the park, enjoy the last days of summer, etc. Five minutes into my walk, three elderly gentlemen passed by (walking) - one of them was quite irate; they were apparently discussing politics. One of the gentlemen, said very loudly to his two buddies, "ALL DEMOCRATS ARE SOCIALISTS!"
I just thought to myself as I walked on by, "What do you think you "social" security is, and what do you think your "Medicare" is? Do you think these are government programs?
I just wanted to send out a big "shout-out" to Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Fox News and tell you, "Awesome brain-washing job!" "You betcha"!
P.S. - I live in NE OH. The area where I was walking is a predominantly heavy Democrat voting population with a heavy union presence (although it's been waning for several decades due to companies moving out of the state to avoid both punitive state tax policies as well as being able to employ non-union labor. I am not, nor have I ever been a union employee, I have nothing for or against union labor - I'm just speaking of the demographics of the particular town I heard this remark today). I am willing to bet that all three of these retired elderly gentlemen are enjoying their pension (defined benefit vs. defined contribution, which most of us have today), their social security, and their Medicare.
It's amazing to me how they happily partake of government systems that benefit them, but are poo-poo'ing it for everyone else. The topper on the cake was the one guy's random "shout-out"!!!
This "socialism" bent that everyone seems to be on these days is just a new take on an old problem: Democrats have always been the party of handouts and entitlements. If the new way to define this fact is to call it "socialism," then so be it. A welfare state has been the goal of Democrats for decades. Nothing has changed.
That is so right but as one of those far right people ( that is what lefties think I am) I have also been called a socialist by some lefties. I guess I am just a socialist racist Republican.
Well, I don't care for how loosely these terms are being thrown out today: "socialists, communists, fascists, lefties, righties", etc. Oh, add racist to that mixture. These words have been sincerely perverted far, far, far, far away from their original and TRUE meanings.
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