Stop calling them entitlements
This has been bugging me for a long time, and I'm guilty of it myself, but it's a mistake to label Social Security and Medicare as entitlement programs. They are not entitlements. They are contractual obligations. We've paid in our hard earned money, from every paycheck, for our entire working lives specifically for these programs with the express promise the money would be paid back to us on our retirement in a specifically defined manner.
Subsidies to profit taking industries, no-bid contracts for government goods and services, special tax breaks for only certain classes of taxpayers, lower tax rates on capital gains, cushy gold-plated pension plans for retired lawmakers and such are entitlements. Social Security and Medicare are not.
Subsidies to profit taking industries, no-bid contracts for government goods and services, special tax breaks for only certain classes of taxpayers, lower tax rates on capital gains, cushy gold-plated pension plans for retired lawmakers and such are entitlements. Social Security and Medicare are not.
Labels: Congress, spending, Workers Rights
posted by Libby Spencer at 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
Ms Spencer "This has been bugging me for a long time, and I'm guilty of it myself, but it's a mistake to label Social Security and Medicare as entitlement programs. They are not entitlements. They are contractual obligations. We've paid in our hard earned money, from every paycheck, for our entire working lives specifically for these programs with the express promise the money would be paid back to us on our retirement in a specifically defined manner. "
These programs cannot meet their obligations as they are structured. Playing semantics with the definitions does nothing to improve the programs ability to deliver on promised benefits.
SS and Medicare programs have been modified numerous times during the course of our working lives, and need to be modified again.
The choices are simple..raise taxes, modify benefits, or a combination of both.
There is no money tree, magic ATM, no VRWC. Its simply economics and demographics.
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