Sunday, April 11, 2010

Disrespect for the Supremes - So What Now?

Since the President was so "in your face" when speaking of and directly to the Supreme Court during his State of the Union I can't imagine why anyone would figure he would use his second opportunity to do anything other than political. It is obvious that he either doesn't know his Constitution as advertised or considers it something to be changed and will do his utmost to name someone with the same ideas. I'm sick of it already. Will someone let me know when it's over?

Also, I'd like to be able to say that one of these days the Dems will quit blaming everything on Bush or just pointing to an event in the past administration whenever they can't think of anything else to say which is negative. They can call the Republicans the "party of no" but they are nothing more than the party of "Blame Bush" for anything and everything. I'd say "wake me when it's over" but I'm afraid I'd be Mrs. Rip Van Winkle at that point.

I have a question: I always thought that an entitlement was something you got for nothing--like welfare or even a scholarship--that there was no personal investment in the end result. So, when did Social Security and Medicare become entitlements? Has everyone forgotten that Social Security has been paid for by individual contributions along with a like amount from an employer? And that if you were self-employed you paid both portions? (Medicare started later so we didn't pay into it all our lives if we are of a certain age, but you young folks have been paying all your working lives already.)

Since the Congresses through the years have seen fit to steal that money from the taxpayers almost since its inception (tossing a little IOU into the file cabinet in Virginia or wherever the heck it is located now) and the Ponzi scheme has become obvious to even those who didn't recognize it just a few short years ago, everyone is now calling it an "ENTITLEMENT" so they can fool around with the basic premise and change the terms of the contract.

When I used to speak on the subject there's one line I remember even though I don't remember the exact number of years it went something like: If you were a low income earner you got back every dollar taken for FICA in a relatively short time--perhaps 10 years. If you were a middle income earner it would take something like 26 years meaning you would have to live to 90+ to recover just what you put in. If you were a high income earner, you'd never get all of it back.

Now, I have no problem upping the retirement age since we all live a lot longer overall, but if Congress is thinking about dropping the return or as they like to say "benefits" that is outrageous. Especially given the way prices will go up with a VAT or National sales tax and the sky's the limit spending we have now and the increased taxes being levied on middle income folks.

Does anyone have a clue as to how to change the language of politicians and pundits as to the word "entitlement?"

Hope your weekend is going well--
God bless.........

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