The word "entitlements"

[SHRED]

A very misleading word that is thrown around by the corporate media, using it against us.

"The war and insurance lobbies rattled their campaign contribution pocketbooks and quickly convinced Congress and the White House that the real purpose of the health care bill is to save money by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits, thereby “getting entitlements under control.”

Entitlements is a right-wing word used to cast aspersion on the few things that the government did, in the distant past, for citizens. Social Security and Medicare, for example, are denigrated as “entitlements.” The right-wing goes on endlessly about Social Security and Medicare as if they were welfare give-aways to shiftless people who refuse to look after themselves, whereas in actual fact citizens are vastly overcharged for the meager benefits with a 15% tax on their wages and salaries.

Indeed, for decades now the federal government has been funding its wars and military budgets with the surplus revenues collected by the Social Security tax on labor.

To claim, as the right-wing does, that we can’t afford the only thing in the entire budget that has consistently produced a revenue surplus indicates that the real agenda is to drive the mere citizen into the ground.

The real entitlements are never mentioned. The “defense” budget is an entitlement for the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned us 50 years ago. A person has to be crazy to believe that the United States, “the world’s only superpower,” protected by oceans on its East and West and by puppet states on its North and South, needs a “defense” budget larger than the military spending of the rest of the world combined."

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12022009.html

[Skittles]

1. we are entitled to war, dontcha know

[Pharaoh]

2. Bush spent most of the

SS surplus and then said SS was nothing but a bunch of worthless IOU's

Amazing!

[SHRED]

3. I remember that

[ThomWV]

4. You are entitled to those things for which you have paid and I paid taxes all my life

And I am dam sure entitled to the benefits which derive from those taxes.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Great. More sniveling 'liberal' word-o-phobic nonsense.

We're number one... at redefining words so we can pretend to be deeply offended by them.

Stop this nonsense.

[Bluebear]

6. "sniveling liberal" eh?

[Lance_Boyle]

9. look where the quotes are, Mr. Bear

It's whiny nonsense like this that offends this liberal. I do not wish to be lumped in with the permavictim wackaloons who foist this crap on the real-world left. The word entitlement is not problematic. People trying to make it appear so, are.

[Lorien]

7. Spoken like someone who has NO CLUE as to the power of effectively

framing the debate, something the GOP excels at and wins by.

[Lorien]

8. Pre-Reagan they were simply called "social programs"

But the word "entitlements" worked for them because it makes it sound as if we didn't pay into the system to begin with; that we're just seeking "privileges" that we don't really deserve:

Main Entry: en·ti·tle·ment
Pronunciation: \-ˈtī-təl-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 1942

1 a : the state or condition of being entitled : right b : a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
2 : a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also : funds supporting or distributed by such a program
3 : belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges

[bvar22]

10. I am worried that the seeds for the destruction of Medicare....

...have been planted in the current Health Care Reform Bill which calls for reducing funding for Medicare by $500 Billion, and giving THAT money to the For Profit Health Insurance Cartels in the form of "subsidies".
"They" say that that is ALL "Waste and Fraud".

I know there IS "Waste and Fraud" in Medicare, but $500 Billion?
I feel that any "Medicare" money saved by addressing "Waste & Fraud" should be re-invested IN Medicare for better services, NOT given to the For Profits.


It is NOT a secret that the DLC has always wanted to dismantle what they call "entitlements" (Programs that actually help the Middle Class and Poor), and the DLC is NOW firmly In Charge.


The DLC New Team

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)


”I am a New Democrat!”---Barack Obama
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254931&kaid=85&subid=900184

[Sinti]

11. I often wonder why no one is outraged

by the fact that you are not "entitled" to earn a living in this world. Seriously, you can only survive if you have value to International Megacorp or the Military Industrial Church. Is this right? A human being should be absolutely entitled to survival (food and shelter) if they are willing to work for it. If they are unable, as human beings we should be responsible and provide it, because they still have value. By not doing so you could wind up losing a mind like Steven Hawking. Think about that, how many great minds are left to rot, because they start off with 'no value'?

sniveling 'liberal' - Really? Here on Democratic Underground. My goodness, we have come a long way.

[Pharaoh]

12. Love

O8)