‘Entitlement’ Is a Republican Word

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/entitlement_is_a_republican_word_20110714/?ln

At his news conference this week, President Barack Obama seized on a misleading Washington word—“entitlements”—to describe the badly needed aid programs that are likely to be cut because of his compromises with the Republicans.

“Entitlement” is a misleading word because it masks the ugly reality of reducing medical aid for the poor, the disabled and anyone over 65 as well as cutting Social Security. Calling such programs entitlements is much more comfortable than describing them as what they are—Medicare, Social Security and money for good schools, unemployment insurance, medical research and public works construction that would put many thousands to work.

It’s also a Republican word. It implies that those receiving government aid have a sense of entitlement, that they’re getting something for nothing. And now it’s an Obama word as he moves toward the center and away from the progressives who powered his 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination over centrist Hillary Clinton.

“There is, frankly, resistance on my side to do anything on entitlements,” he said before heading into another negotiating session over raising the debt limit and cutting the budget. “There is strong resistance on the Republican side to do anything on revenues. But if each side takes a maximalist position, if each side wants 100 percent of what its ideological predispositions are, then we can’t get anything done.”

More at the link --

[SoutherDem]

1. I agree cut the entitlements...

... the ones all of the big corporation are getting from the U.S. Government, in other words the tax payers. I thought capitalism states if you can't stand on your own you should fall, it is time the corporations stand on their own and stop taking from the government.

[Egalitariat]

2. What do you have to do to get Medicare? I thought you were "entitled" to it on your 65th birthday.

Isn't that the only requirement?

What do you have to do to "earn" your Medicaid eligibility?

[jwirr]

11. You pay a premium out of your social security check. Just like you

do for any insurance program. For the poor the premium in paid by Medicaid.

[WinkyDink]

16. To be specific, one doesn't "do" anything; the govt takes it right off before you GET the check!

And the Medicare payments always rise, thus and ineluctably REDUCING ONE'S SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFIT.

THIS IS WHAT OBAMA REFUSES TO SEE OR ADMIT TO US.

[jwirr]

18. My point - I pay for it thus I DO and I have a right to what I pay for.

[Egalitariat]

19. Does that mean people who don't work (and therefore don't pay premiums) don't get Medicare when they

turn 65?

My grandmother never paid a penny into Social Security or Medicare, and she gets both.

Why? Because she's "entitled" to it.

Entitlement is an excellent way to describe those programs. I don't see why people are so sensitive about it.

[Obamanaut]

3. When people pay into the social security system for decades, are they

not 'entitled' to a return of some sort?

[PeaceNikki]

4. It's not a "Republican word". Republicans misuse it by implying they are bad.

[pipi_k]

10. I agree and would add...

that they do the same thing with the word "Liberal", yet nobody says we shouldn't use that word.

In fact, Liberals refer to themselves as such with much glee and pride.

:)

[SDuderstadt]

5. No, it's not....

with respect to the federal budget, an entitlement is any spending that is mandated by law or contract and has been for decades. Just as with the word "liberal", the GOP has put their own spin on it and we have let them. There is no problem with the word "entitlements".

We play right into their hands by letting them do this.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. +1,000,000!!! The OP has Bernie Sanders as his/her avatar, and yet

Bernie Sanders has not allowed the GOP to demonize the word "entitlement" as they have successfully done to the word "liberal" and "socialist."

I'm unrecommending just for that!

Stop allowing GOP to define the terms of the debate. They have absolutely NO credibility!!!!

[WinkyDink]

17. The distinction is between DENOTATION (Democrats) and CONNOTATION (Republicans). Connotation is

winning the battle with the President and with the public.

[nashville_brook]

6. i read this earlier today, and while i know the original intent of the word, i'm totally convinced

by his argument. this word cannot and should not be reclaimed. it's connotation is what it is and we'd be smart to notice how it's used, and who is using it.

[moondust]

7. "sense of entitlement"

is better applied to the useless offspring of fat cats who grow up learning little more than selfishness, greed, and waste reinforced by handouts from daddy. One who never has to work for anything is not likely to develop much character or appreciation for *earning* a living.

Maybe Republicans got tired of having it applied to them so they have turned it on the poor and anybody else who happens to be convenient.

[JHB]

8. It's just a word. What the Republicans have done...

...is to play a shell game with what it means.

In the 80's they used the term to mean welfare (and equated thet with cheats and lazy bums)...but included the budget for SS and Medicare to make it look like a huge part of the budget (they were all entitlements).

Now they're turning the switcheroo around, and making SS and Medicare to be the handout that needs to be trimmed back.

[roxiejules]

9. and now 'Entitlement' is being taught in school

and (quelle surprise!!!) just as teachers and unions are being disenfranchised and schools are being privatized:


Raising young deficit hawks


http://www.remappingdebate.org/print?content=node%2F400


February 3, 2011 — No one has done more than the billionaire private-equity investor Peter G. Peterson to stir America’s anxiety over deficits, debt, and what Peterson (among others) considers out-of-control entitlement-program spending. Those same concerns now lie at the heart of a “fiscal responsibility” curriculum being developed for America’s high schools. The curriculum bears the stamp of Columbia University’s prestigious Teachers College, but reflects the focus suggested by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which provided $2.4 million in funding for the project.

Teachers College gave access to a set of 24 lessons set to be test-taught in four states this spring prior to a wider roll-out in 2011-12. Heavily weighted toward the themes and arguments of Peterson and other deficit hawks, the trial lessons could be seen as part of an effort by one of the country’s wealthiest men, now 82, to spread his gospel to coming generations. Although the lessons focus on the perils of public debt, they also suggest another danger — of an academic institution inadvertently lending its weight to a big funder’s cause.

[WinkyDink]

15. And when they are old, they will hit that $$ brick wall, but their evil mentors will be long dead.

Today's propagandized children will then reap the bitter fruit of foolishness.

[eomer]

13. "as he moves toward the center"

No, he is right of center on the issues that affect the broad majority of Americans, has been since candidate-Obama morphed into President Obama.

[WinkyDink]

14. Helping people is not simply "ideological predispositions," Mr. President.