The left is so thin skinned, after months of using homsexual innuendo to smear tea party activists, celebrating Dick Cheney needing back surgery, cheering Glenn Beck’s appendix and wishing it would kill him, etc., etc., etc. the left is demanding that Marsha Blackburn condemn the rhetoric used by tea party activists.

Blackburn is refusing.

What words do the left object to? “Socialist,” “evil,” “totalitarian,” etc.

These socialists are the exact same people who think twentysomethings who don’t get health insurance should go to jail for five years, but anyone and everyone who wants to kill kids with impunity should get a constitutional right to do so.

That is evil.

A lot of money. As in, his net worth has increased fifty-fold, and that’s not a typo. Gateway Pundit revisits some commentary by Pro Patria about Al Gore’s relationship with Big Green (a good name, that):

So just what has Al Gore gained from his Big Green escapades? According to public disclosure information, Gore was worth somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in 2000. Not quite eight years later, Gore is estimated to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. While I ordinarily would applaud such financial gains from such a short period of time, I can’t help but to question just how it happened. When you look out at what Al Gore has done, it’s evident that he figured out on a way to capitalize on the creation of Big Green while becoming the official doomsday prophet that has helped to build Big Green into the monetary powerhouse that it has become.

That post is from 2007, and the number it mentions was also reported here and here (neither unsympathetically, which is the reason why they were chosen): Gateway Pundit is bringing it up again because Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) had some pointed questions to Mister Gore on his business relationships. Human Events had ten more, all of which should be asked by his supporters themselves, and none of which will be.  Note that Blackburn did ask some of these questions; also note that Gore evaded them, complete with that patented “the fools denied my greatness!  But I’ll show them!  I’ll show them ALL!” smirk that he reserves for situations like this.  I have to admit; if this is Gore’s revenge scenario for America it’s going well.

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It’s no secret to anybody who’s been paying attention to budget numbers that the United States, with a current GDP of just under $14 trillion, is $52 trillion in the hole in one specific area: Medicare and Social Security payments owed to those who have already prequalified by paying into the system.

You can flip and fudge the numbers any way you want; no matter what, that’s some real money we’re talking about right there — and that’s just what’s already owed folks who are over 22 and in the workforce or have already retired, all having paid into the system at some point. The program could be ended today, and that’d be the unfunded liability we the taxpayers are facing: $52 trillion!

A Lack of Choice You Probably Didn’t Know About

Here’s something you might not know: the federal government skirts around this issue when doing its budgeting by counting Medicare and Social Security as “liabilities,” rather than “debts,” because those who are or will be eligible for returns under the programs have no actual binding or contractual right to those returns. That’s why you hear so much about a $7 trillion-ish national debt — that additional $52 trillion is left out of the discussion through a nefarious governmental play on words!

Here’s something else you might not — actually, probably don’t — know: Current and future Medicare costs for those already owed benefits make up over 60% of that liability ($32.3 trillion). Given this, you might think it a good idea to opt out of a Medicare program that probably won’t be solvent enough to cover the costs of your care as a retiree, in favor of a Health Savings Account or some other less costly, more efficient health insurance plan, which you can help pay for with your meager Social Security benefit checks.

Unfortunately, that’s not an option under federal law. Whether there’s money to fund your Medicare or not, once you’re retired, you’re legally required to accept Medicare as your health coverage. If you try to turn down Medicare Part A and go with another, more cost-effective (and higher quality) form of coverage, you officially forfeit your ability to collect on the Social Security benefits you paid into your entire working life!

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