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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Necessity of the Fight

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  August 2nd, 2011 at 04:46 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Here’s something no one wants to talk about, whether Republican or Democrat. Well, I should not say no one, but pretty much every Republican and Democrat who participated in the terms of the debate over the debt ceiling has ignored this.

Government spending is going above 25% of GDP.

Tax revenue, up until the last two years has averaged 18.5% GDP.

Let’s give the Democrats, for the sake of argument, their Clinton tax increases back. The 1998 to 1999 years saw the highest amount of federal revenue come in. But it was only in the 21% of GDP range.

In fact, 1945 and 1999 are the only two years I can find where tax revenue into the federal government surpassed 20%.

In other words, with the economy firing on all cylinders, only twice has revenue into the federal treasury been over 20% of GDP and spending has now gone well above 20% of GDP.

Today the Senate will vote on the compromise debt ceiling plan. If the plan is implemented to the letter as intended, we will add $12 trillion in debt over the next decade.

Democrats are convinced that they can keep squeezing blood from turnips and get more tax revenue. They can’t. History shows us that. Wealth flight will happen or people will find it cost effective to shelter income.

So if tax revenue, in the very case, is going to max out around 20%, it seems even were the Republicans to concede tax increases, the Democrats are going to have to concede massive spending cuts — much more massive in terms of GDP than tax increases.

They’ll obfuscate. They’ll distract. But history will not be denied.

This is why conservatives must keep pushing for more and more. Both the GOP and the Democrats are in denial about the very real issue — government spending is exceeding its ability to take in revenue to fund the leviathan and at some point the leviathan will come crashing down on us, if we are not first consumed by it.

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COMMENTS

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  • Kentucky Scott

    on schedule. This will be the final step of the second Obama administration to converting us to a European Socialist economy. With no need to worry about reelection he will finally able to govern as he believes. it will be likely even be easier with the Republicans in power as they will never stand united against him.

    Those same “gangs” of six or fourteen or whatever number will once again appear to offer surrender in the name of compromise and progress. Much of Congress, Rep. or Dem. will not want to give up their power of spending 26% of the GDP even if they have to share it with Obama. I can almost hear the speeches now about how they don’t want to add a V.A.T.on the backs of the American population but they simply have no choice … of course it will only be 3% and NEVER go higher … wink wink.

  • davesinsanantonio

    neither will the reality of economic laws.

    The problem with the Left is that they deny there is any “Law” outside their own twisted fantasy world. They truly believe that they can order the universe around because they are “so much smarter” than the rest of us.

    I will grant Obummer that he may be smarter than anybody else (which I don’t believe for a nanosecond), but he is not smarter than EVERYBODY else!!! Of course, he and his minions deny that reality as well.

    My hope is that the American People learn that reality before he is forced to, because there will be a lot of suffering if they don’t. We can still save this country if we can win huge in ’12 and then actually follow economic and moral laws and historical and political reality.

    The political “going along, and ” reaching across the aisle” are also denial of reality that have helped push this country to the brink of destruction. The RINOs love of “bipartisanship” and “cordiality” are just as destructive as the wanton disregard of the Constitution and the People practiced by the Dims. Wake up, America, before it is too late!!! Make your hired representatives actually REPRESENT you. They were sent to Washington, and your statehouses and city halls, to do your bidding, not the other way around.

  • frank_s

    Our biggest expense is Medicare & medicaid at $702B per year. If we set a lifetime cap of about $100k per person for life for medicare and $50k for medicaid we can afford *basic* health care for those people. We are doing about 1M heart surgeries per years on people in their 70 & 80′s. I personally know a man that had a $250k heart surgery at 89 and 4 months later he died of a stroke. We can not afford to offer the sky is the limit health care any longer. We also need to eliminate or greatly limit SSI and food stamp pograms. A family of two gets about $1700 in benefits on SSI, Medicaid and food stamps. While a minimum wage working stiff gets nothing.
    The welfare state has to come to an end. Lifetime caps for all benefits. Sink or swim American citizen. IMHO.
    Give a hand up, not a hand out.

  • ralphdaily

    I’m an engineer. I like data better than rhetoric. The 25% spending vs 18-21% revenue is the best analysis I’ve seen.

  • ihateliberals

    I worked all of my life and paid in to SS, Medicare and medicaid. I have to rely on these for most of my medical care and not because I didn’t plan for the future but the future was ripped from under me. I am owed the care promised. why is it that everytime the government F%$K’s up the first place they want to cut is SS etc. Lydon Johnson is the cause of the SS failure. He killed the SS trust fund and took all the money and put it into the general fund with the promise of paying the benefits back to SS. I paid for the SS benefit. It is my money not yours or anyone else’s to cut. Before any of these programs are touched cuts in the government in other areas must be done first. Granted SS etc needs to be reformed but not at the expense of the peole that paid for it. Right now anyone under the age of 50 should not be allowed to be part of the SS program. another sef-sustaining type of system must be developed. Who are you to say that an 89 year old man should be denied a heart surgery because he is going to die anyway? Why should an 89 year old Rich person be able to get the same surgery just because they are rich? Anyone that is currently on the SS, etc systems should not have their benefits touched at all. It isn’t fair to make us dependent on a system and then jerk the rug out when we get old enough to need it. you must be pretty young yet and still feel pretty immortal. I promise you that mortality will reach you someday. Maybe some arrogant young person will pull the plug on you. Have a nice day!

  • ihateliberals

    I sent them there to fight for what I believe not not compromise with the other side. i want my congressman or woman to be working on my agenda not theirs their only agenda should be to serve the people. This reaching across the isle BS is what keeps us in trouble. The Republicans get caught in this trap perpetually. What they don’t realize is that the only time Compromise is mentioned or Bipartisanship is when the Liberal is loosing. No other time is compromise mentioned. The Republicans I send there should not be talking of Compromise anytime. They should stand their ground win or lose. I would rather lose with diginty than win n disgrace. This recent Debt deal is disgrceful to say the least.

  • Francis Cianfrocca

    It’s wrong to say “sink-or-swim, American.” We need a safety net.

    But it DOES need to be means-tested. This is a much better way to solve the problem than with a blanket lifetime cap on benefits.

    The problems with Medicare/Medicaid are different in kind. There, we have overutilization and unintelligent cost control. In addition to being basically unaffordable, these programs need internal reform as well.

    It’s deeply problematic to say “I paid into SS/Medicare all my life and it’s my money, so no one can take it from me.” If I may assume that “ihateliberals” hasn’t taken his name in irony, it’s frightening that so many people, both on the left and the right, agree with him. Means-testing entitlements, for this reason, will probably remain politically impossible.

    And that in turn means that much higher taxes are the only available solution to the problem. Get ready for them.

  • Francis Cianfrocca

    Tax revenue has averaged something like 18% since the late Forties, and it’s not credible for Democrats to think they can permanently ratchet it up to Clintonian levels of 21% or even higher. It’s not a coincidence that the one-and-a-half Clinton surplus years were followed by a recession.

    But let’s fill in the blanks. Starting in FY 2009, revenues actually plunged as the combination of economic weakness and zero-interest rates took a heavy toll on incomes.

    Revenues are currently running at only about 16.4% of GPD. During the recession, they fell below 15%, a level not seen since 1947, a year of high inflation and widespread labor unrest.

    It’s one thing for Dems to talk about going from 18.5% to 21% or higher. It’s quite different, and even more impossible, to go from 16.4% to 21%.

  • BA Cyclone

    if the government merely gave you back what you put into these programs, including the piddly interest they might have earned while they supposedly kept it for you, you’d not be very happy with the benefit checks you are supposedly entitled to today.

    The money going out has nothing to do with the money coming in from hard-working Americans.

    Just because the federal government is the author of it, does not stop them from being ponzi schemes. The sick fact is that we have no choice but to play along.

    Personally, I’d be fine with continuing to pay into this system if they promise to END THEM ALL in 10-20 years, or at the very least make them actual means-tested safety net programs — rather than some mythic benefit for every American.

    I don’t believe in unicorns or leprechauns, either.

  • BA Cyclone

    We need to put the fight in very plain terms like this, to the American people. I hope the Presidential candidates are onto this, but it’s not just up to them. We need to explain this in such simple terms to everyone who might listen within our circles, friendly and otherwise.

    This isn’t some shell game where their side can wave wands around and magically prosperity will ensue.

    If they get their way, there is no other possible result besides fiscal ruin. “Raising taxes” on any person or group literally has nothing to do with the debate. Statists will find that hard to swallow, because by definition they are superficial at best on this.

    The laws of economics cannot be suspended by any legislature. The statists never stop trying, but several decades of empirical data tell us otherwise. We need to educate upon the reality of the situation, so we can hopefully continue to move the center-right of this country toward a REAL solution.

    Every one of us has to fight at that level, at least.

  • unclefred

    You realize that the treasuries that are, at least in theory, held by SS earn a very low interest rate by design. This was done so that the government could “borrow” it as cheaply as possible. If you take both the employee and employer share of the total contribution and assume that it earns regular long term T-bill interest and compound it. After 40 years a median income earner actually has a pretty tidy sum. More than the maximum SS benefit, and BTW they could pass it on as part of their estate.

    While it’s true that we must reform SS and medicare (a very different problem), we must also treat fairly the victims of what is nothing more than criminal fraud.

  • charliesalmanack

    the impact as each of us reaches out to the “persuadables” in our own lives directly to educate them. Person-by-person, vote-by-vote, it will make a cumulative difference in what (I fear) will be a close election in 2012.

  • renny

    and then the debt and deficits can be eliminated through legislation, including repealing o’care.

    I thought I planned my “golden years” really well: I taught, so I could expect a solid pension (in NJ, the pension system is underfunded and a problem even Christie cannot yet fix). I would receive SS, that I was unaware until a few years ago, is in such jeopardy. And I do have savings and investments, now all worth about 50% of what they were three years back, so I am loath to touch any of those assets, as I could live another 10-20 years. Thusly, I am still working part time at three jobs and expect to do so until I die.

    Soc. Sec. and Medicare need to have their eligibility ages raised to 70, as when SS was set up, the average mortality was in the 50s and only one in 10 lived till 65. We are now living officially until 78 and that figure could easily be 85 in 20 years (unless o’care kicks in because many more elderly will die under its tender mercies). Disabilities need to be addressed (the ADA from Bush I-Dole is a killer and includes ALL of the so-called learning disabilities). Some schools have 50-60% of its student population classified as learning disabled and EACH ONE is entitled to SS disability payments.

    Early-retirement payouts by themselves should be stopped.

    People should be able to opt out of either one or both, which now is not a choice.

    Soc. Sec. needs to have its deductions applied to all earnings and not cut off at some artificial point (C. $85,000 today).

    Both need to be means tested and SS indexing has to be restructured. SS automatically raises starting payouts to new enrollees as they sign up day by day and year by year. So that, someone making $50,000 today gets c. $1500 a month and another making $15000 six months from now gets $1550 and next year another gets $1650, and on and on. If indexing was only raised in 5 year segments, 100s of billions, leading to trillions, would be saved.

    Something like the Ryan plan must to be applied to Soc. Sec., because as 7000 a day are signing up until 2020, we will reach the point when nearly 1/4-1/3 of nation is on retirement benefits and being supported by the other 2/3′s who have little hope of benefiting from the system.

    Most of all, we deserve a better economy. If the Bush boom had been able to continue into 2008, his deficits were falling under 2% of GNP and might have fallen to 0. And, if we can rid ourselves of the anti-capitalist, anti-business, anti-wealth accumulation, anti-American mob in the WH and DC bureaucracies, a rising GNP will increase revenues and contribute to lessening our expenditure and borrowing problems.

  • 1stRichard

    ihateliberals, All sorts of alarms should go off when you hear that line. I learned that from my parents who learned from, who learned from, who learned from?. In addition, stuff like, if you can?t pay for it in cash now do not take out a loan for it and so much more. Now that I am a bit older and much wiser, I can say they were correct. I also think there is a better description for all this and it is indentured servitude, but this is with someone that can change the rules at the end. Have too many misplaced our founding values and have gone past the brink of no return, I don?t know, would anyone like to speculate on this?

  • Kyle-MI

    All of this “I paid into SS, it is my money” whining is complete and utter garbage. Yes, it is unfair, but it is the same as anyone who paid into a pyramid scheme. The earliest “investors” get the benefits and the later ones end up on the hook with nothing. They paid, too, but they get nothing in return.

    The simple fact of the matter is that SS in its current form is unsustainable. The rates have been slowly ratcheted up so that retirees today have paid a much lower tax rate than the workers who are supporting them. It has only put off collapse of the system.

    The Supreme Court has ruled that it is not your money. It is not transferable to your heirs. It is not a savings account. It is a tax, pure and simple.

    The system was ill conceived. It is a miracle that it has made it this far.

    As for me, I am not counting on one cent from SS. It will be long gone by the time I retire. I am only looking to reduce my exposure to SS taxes.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    I do hate the very concept of an entitlement. You a re not entitled to a single breath of air until you earn it by sucking it into your chest. Every dollar of that entitlement is taken from another person. Nothing is worse for the morale and general welfare of the American People than for a class of our population to start walking around convinced that others owe them some sort of living. That is the type of thinking that spawns violence and civil war.

  • 4suramcan

    What we need is to get rid of all of THEM and start over. THEY got us into this mess and THEY will keep us in it . The pronouns mean, congress.

  • dadx3

    A 2.4 trillion dollar slush fund along with 12 trillion in increased debt over 10 years will be the result of this “compromise” vote. Thanks to Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker and John Duncan Jr. for helping to destroy the economy and further enslave our children.

  • avgjo

    my entire working-age life. I don’t expect to get a dime of it. As someone else here said, you’d not be too happy if you only got the actual amount you paid into it. Since I don’t expect to get any SS, I’m preparing accordingly.

    I am amazed at people who are conservative who act so touchy about their SS ‘benefits’. They are supposed to understand better than anyone the evils of government programs like SS; one of the greatest evils of them is that they deliver false promises; they can’t survive beause of the historical facts alluded by Mr. Erickson and because the politicians who set them up use them as a slush fund for their power-grabbing schemes. Anyone who is conservative knows this and, like my dad has, should be ready for it.

    With all due respect, this is exactly the mentality that may well make ‘entitlement’ reform impossible. and that will destroy the future of my youngest siblings and my niece and nephew. Rush was talking about some horrid old woman from Mass. who said basically ‘let my grandkids pay more taxes, but don’t touch my SS!’. That’s the selfish attitude of previous generations that has led this country to near-destruction. I personally won’t be a party to it.

    America WAS built on Judaeo-Christian values, namely selflessness (think barn raisings and private charity pre-welfare state) and industry. SS has eroded both of those. If these aren’t restored, we’re doomed.

  • johnt

    of leftist lunatics. Start with “only” 2% or 3%, a “modest” tax to finance what is called much needed programs, then stand back, we’re off to the races, 15% and up. Just as what occurred in Europe, except it appears our nuts are nuttier than their nuts.

  • http://www.flaliberty.org scorpio0679

    But it is not discussed, ignored, etc.

    What is so hard with prioritizing our spending to cap at 18% of GDP? I mean, that’s honestly a ridiculously high number. BUT, it should be absolutely doable. Imagine, the federal government (not including state and local), consuming 1/4 of our economy!!!! CONSUMING! Every dollar spent by the government is a dollar consumed from the private sector . . ..

  • keysconservative

    The U.S. debt was roughly $10 Trillion when Obama took office. Thanks to the new debt deal it stands at roughly $17 Trillion. He’s going to have a hell of a time running on that.

  • caboose

    The Republicans and the dems sold out America yesterday. In doing so they created what the PIG Media called a “Super Congress” committee. Since they are not going to be making decisions and since they have already stopped reading bills and therefore do not know whats in them prior to vote and (after), and since they have delegated all of their authority and responsibility to dictator committee, they no longer need a staff of do nothings. Right now each US Representative and US Senator has over twenty or more staff members just putting in their time doing nothing but campaigning for their worthless boss. The cost of this worthless staff cost the tax payers millions of dollars in pay and benefits. With the SUPER CONGRESS COMMITTEEs doing their job now, lets demand that Congress reduce or eliminate their staff. They could keep one staff member to answer their phone and tell you to contact the SCC if you want to know whats going to happen to your Country.

  • rightwingmom52

    paying into a pyramid scheme or losing on an investment that you made by choice and having your hard-earned money confiscated into a program in which you would never willingly participate. We had no choice. That’s more than just unfair.

    I’m not counting on SS either, and I support reform 100% for my child’s sake. My husband and I are within 10-15 years of retirement, but that doesn’t mean I don’t resent knowing that the money we worked for was stolen by the government with a promise they’d give at least some of it back but instead squandered it.

  • red_oakster

    We are going to need legislators who will push hard for limited government if we can elect a conservative president and a Republican congress.

    Some suggestions:

    1. Find an opponent to Corker in TN
    2. If Hoekstra is the candidate in MI, get behind him
    3. Back conservatives like Cruz, Hasner, and Mourdock
    4. Either find a way to knock off Snowe or back Hatch against the Huntsman aide Chaffetz. If Hatch loses, the Finance Committee in the Senate goes to Snowe and the hopes for meaningful economic reform will die.
    5. Find good candidates to oppose Casey in PA and Mancin in WV

  • littlehouse18

    and she was a joy to our family all the way. She also helped with babysitting, dogsitting, wisdom-imparting, history-telling, etc. She had quite a few surgeries in her 70s, 80s, and even 90s. I’m repulsed by someone putting a price tag on her. The same goes for my mom, who had major heart surgery at 72. Seems that our society has lost its heart and its humanity when we start talking this way.

  • rightwingmom52

    I’ve paid into SS back, much less what I actually paid, even without any interest. I’m planning on “0″ when the time comes (probably the next 10-15 years). I’d even be happy if the government would just stop confiscating that portion of my check and let me keep what I’m earning from now until retirement.

    What’s especially frustrating to those of us who are facing retirement fairly soon is the fact that not only has the government squandered SS, but also threatened our private retirement funds with the out of control spending, Obamacare, looming tax hikes, etc. We haven’t budgeted SS into our retirement, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to budget our private funds for the future when you don’t know what’s coming from D.C.

  • littlehouse18

    I wonder if this debt debate will make the public more recptive.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    They can just sit back and wait.
    VAT is just the enabling mechanism to pay for it.
    They can just borrow and spend until the IMF shows up and MAKES us do the VAT.

  • morostheos

    We need to get out of the mind set that government is going to take care of us or that government is going to take care of someone we should be taking care of.

  • earlgrey

    to wreck these programs. I am payiing into programs now that will never benefit me. The rules were made by politicans before me.

    There is no way to make this fair, but I think it does need to be pointed out that the leaders like Johnson and most of the congress people were elected by the people that are or about to receive the retirement benefits. Now they want to complain because they aren’t getting enough?

    I dont mean to be critical, but it shouldn’t be my obligation to pay for others’ benefits when I know I will never receive them. I know that will happen, and that I will be forced to pay for these benefits for others and be left with nothing. I didn’t vote for these clowns that stole the SS trust fund, and lied to the country about the costs of Medicare, Medicaid.

  • Spartan4Life

    And replace them with something better and more fiscally sound,

    I have always said that the Republicans problem is that they say, “We think Medicare and Social Security are great programs, We just are going to give you less of them.” That’s a tough sell.

    Alternatively, why not take the position that these social experiments are failures and come up with something better. I have two ideas.

    One is to fix Social Security benefits at current levels. No increases ever. It would put SS on a glide path to fiscal sanity without significantly impacting current beneficiaries. Over time through the natural effects of inflation you could lower Payroll tax rates and SSt would represent less and less of an individual’s retirement savings. I would couple this with savings incentives such as matching funds for individuals who responsinbly save for their own retirement.

    As for Medicare, is there any doubt that my kids ages 17, 18, and 23 are going to be responsible for paying for more of their own healthcare than our current crop of seniors? Why have Health Savings Acounts not ever gotten traction? Because they are a good idea, that’s why. Our @#&*ing politicians are afraid they will lose their precious power over people, that’s why. The real problem with our healthcare delivery system is that everything costs too much. Unless we design a system that bring market forces to bear we will be ruined.

    Everyone will likely say that I am dreaming. I can tell you from personal experience that these programs are very unpopular with young people. If the right kind of leader came along and made the case that we can do better, I think they would find a lot of people ready to go along.

  • morostheos

    for your grandmother’s surgeries? Isn’t that your and your families responsibility? If the families desire is to see their loved one saved at all costs, then they should bear the burden of that cost. Not society. (It would help if health care costs reflected the actual cost of the care and not all the extras that get thrown in like covering liablity insurance and non-paying customers)

    Walter Williams gave an example filling in for Rush one day: Suppose someone game up to you with a gun and demanded $100. The reason they are robbing you is to help their friend who needs medical care. Worthy cause right? But that still doesn’t make it ok that they are robbing you. This is exactly what is happening when government takes our money but it’s ok because it’s for a worthy cause, right?

    I think those who are eligible or almost eligible for SS / Medicare should be given what they were promised but we need to cut it off for those below a particular age (50 for example, which would include me). And that’s what most reform bills that I’ve seen are proposing but yet we can’t even have a discussion about it without having to see commercials depicting congressmen throwing grandma off a cliff. The fact is that grandma is running to her congressman for help instead of her children. And her children are happy to let someone else take their responsibility.

  • rightwingmom52

    I had this conversation with my 80 year old mother last week. She and my dad draw a little SS because after retiring from his 9-5, my dad took various odd jobs to supplement their income. At 83 and with only one arm, he drives a tractor for a local nursery. They pay a lot for decent health insurance in addition to their Medicare. I can understand why they are afraid to lose any portion of this income, however, when I pointed out to my mom that my family will probably never see a penny and that we are willing to live with that in order to save the future for their grandchildren and great-grandchlidren, she got it. That’s how we’re going to have to sell the message. The Democrats do a great job of using children to make their point, however wrong that point is. We’ve got to do the same.

  • melbedewy

    We’re done. It’s as simple as that.
    Under this “all cuts” so called deal we will be at Greece’s 140% debt-GDP ratio by the end of 2016.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    “I worked all of my life and paid in to SS, Medicare and medicaid. ”
    I pay taxes for a lot of Government that doesn’t do me a lick of good. Your payments of taxes, for these programs and for other programs is not for you, but for others.

    “I am owed the care promised.”
    Really. I am owed the Clinton tax cut promised. Where did that go? I am owed the balanced budget promised. etc. Promises made by politicians are worthless.

    In reality, the ‘promise’ made to you, if multiplied by all the living Americans who have been given the same ‘promise’, is a $70 TRILLION actuarial deficit. Do you think the Government can afford to make good on that promise? It’sthe empty shell of a promise for a Ponzi Scheme Government program. If a private sector entity made this promise, they’d be charged and convicted of fraud.

    “I paid for the SS benefit. It is my money not yours or anyone else?s to cut.”
    There is no account where you can go to get ‘your money’. It’s the politicians’ money and they spent it on everything from Great Society to Obamacare. Havent you figured that out by now? This is how socialism works, dont confuse it with a system with real property rights. In reality, prior generations have invariably paid less into the program than what they got out, so the payments have been too generous. This can only be ‘fixed’ by, for soc-sec, tinkering with CPI or the retirement age, and for medicare, by putting screws on doctors. Or the liberal solution … higher taxes!

    We need a better system, this one’s broke in more ways than one.

    “Before any of these programs are touched cuts in the government in other areas must be done first.”

    These programs – just 3 programs – are the majority of Federal spending, and will grow to 80% of our spending in a decade or so.

    “Granted SS etc needs to be reformed but not at the expense of the peole that paid for it. Right now anyone under the age of 50 should not be allowed to be part of the SS program. another sef-sustaining type of system must be developed.”

    I agree with this 100%. This is what the Ryan plan attempts to do on the Medicare side, make it self-sustaining for next generation while leaving those currently on status quo system as is. On Social Security side we need a voluntary option and the ability to direct your own retirement savings.

    “not because I didn?t plan for the future but the future was ripped from under me.”

    We owe it to the next generation to fix this, so they dont have the same lament that you do.
    You’ve been a victim of a Govt scam.

  • gpclaw

    With the debt ceiling debate over, this should be the next area of focus. I doubt anyone has much faith in yet another committee, but it is what it is.

    I’m sure everyone has heard the rumors revolving around barring anyone who voted ‘NO’ on the debt deal from the committee. If we can’t have people like Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, Jeff Flake, Michelle Bachmann, etc, then there won’t be any adults in the room to make sure that the big government GOP’ers don’t give away the farm.

    What type of arm twisting is it going to take to make this happen?

  • tippycanoe

    This is what happens when you go to Washington. They break you down in listening sessions. You become one of them rather than one of us. You go along to get along. You’re an Allen West. Within a few days, they got to them where they need them be. Nauseating.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60451_Page2.html

  • oi812

    in?sur?ance (2n-shKrZMns)
    n.
    The act, business, or system of insuring.
    The state of being insured.
    A means of being insured.
    Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified loss in return for premiums paid.
    The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something.
    The periodic premium paid for this coverage.

    If you have fire insurance and have to use it because of fire is that a entitlement ?

    It is if the gov runs it.

  • avgjo

    that it would have taken to get this crudsandwich bill put into the trashbin. As you can see, that didn’t happen. So I would not hold my breath waiting for small-government conservatives to be placed on this commission.

  • rightwingmom52

    in quite the same way I do the establishment or the leadership. A fter cooling down a bi), I’m willing to give those freshman who voted for it the benefit of the doubt on why they did so. Allen West said in an interview that when you go into battle, you can’t formulate a 100% plan. Instead, you formulate a 75% or 80% plan and execute it to 100%. I’m paraphrasing to the best of my recall – forgive me if I butchered the military view, but I think most will get the gist of it. While I don’t like the plan that passed, and I think the GOP leadership was weak, and all the other points we’ve made over the last few days, we need to realize that sending reinforcements to those freshman will strengthen their resolve the next time. Focus on replacing reps whose voting records are not conservative based on a lifetime of votes, Dem or GOP. Strength in numbers.

  • Kentucky Scott

    Just like TARP, the overwhelming theme will be we have no options, we must pass a VAT and we must pass it immediately before the “world as we know it comes to an end.”

    It gets tiring to see the playbook well in advance and feel like it can’t be stopped. Watching the Republicans lock in all the stimulus and Obamacare spending only 8 months after being put in power has been quite dispiriting this week.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    Here’s who should be on the super committee:

    Senate – Rand Paul, Jeff Sessions, Pat Toomey
    House – Connie Mack IV, Jeff Flake, Jim Jordan

    Some other names would work, but the only House members qualified to be on the committee are among the 66 who couldn’t vote for the bill.

  • BA Cyclone

    the problem is that the “retirement program benefits” paid out do not reflect this reality.

    Unless promises equal the assumptions of the program, this is a blatant ponzi scheme and the only difference between this and Bernie Madoff are the names, and that Bernie tried to hide it.

  • BA Cyclone

    I am fortunate to have a couple decades left with which to save, and I can tell you that my personal retirement calculator includes ZERO from the guvmint. I’m actually supposed to get a pension or two as well (private) but I don’t count on those, either.

    While I still have the rights of personal property, I’m going to plan to self-fund my retirement to the best of my ability.

    Live like nobody else, so I can live like nobody else.

    But yes, even those private investments can give a real heartburn because it seems like with these knuckleheads running the macroeconomy, investing seems like it has all the reliability of a ouija board. Like salmon trying to swim upstream to do our duty, and we hit the Niagara Falls.