"Our entitlement costs are killing us"

[Stinky The Clown]

That's not an attributable quote, but it is typical of all the many and varied experts out there bloviating on and on about what a shame it is that we have all these entitlement costs and how they're draining us.

How about we end those FUCKING TAX CUTS for the people who don't need them? And then INCREASE their taxes. On a sliding scale. Until, at the top, it gets to be confiscatory.

[msongs]

1. let's eliminate health care/retirement entitlement for congress and state legislators nt

[Lasher]

2. How about, 'our military spending is killing us'?

When you hear them whine about entitlement costs you know they're leftover Bushies. They're everywhere in the media. Too bad we can't vote pundits out of their jobs like we did GOP politicians.

[supernova]

4. Absofuckinglutely!

When they want to bring down our military spending in line with other budget items, then I'll listen to them whine about "entitlements."

[Deep13]

6. We can't afford to be an empire...

...and it is no longer an economically viable option anyway.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. No shit. Watching the History Channel last night there was a program

about ancient China. It mentioned how the Han dynasty fell because of the massive amounts they were spending on their military and the building of the Great Wall.

Was there EVER an empire that did not collapse because of its military spending?

[Lasher]

16. We have a more recent history lesson:

The collapse of the USSR. And we have learned nothing from it. We could have made lasting friendships with other nations like Russia. Plowshares and pruning hooks, all that. But no, we had to elect a bunch of belligerent dumbasses who did everything they could to rekindle the Cold War and ran off on Darth Cheney's great neocon adventure in Iraq.

[lpbk2713]

3. BushCo's bogus war killed us.

And they're still laughing all the way to the bank.

[ixion]

5. corrupt pols and bureaucrats from both sides are killing us,

by funneling money to those who have bribed them.

[old mark]

7. Cut the politicians pay and benefits, too......nt

[closeupready]

8. It's a bullshit reich wing meme - the defense budget is killing us,

as is unnecessary wars in countries all over the world, and undertaxing the wealthy.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Here's the big one they want to kill:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider?rel=hp_currently

Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. But an impressive armada is lined up to push the idea--Washington's leading think tanks, the prestige media, tax-exempt foundations, skillful propagandists posing as economic experts and a self-righteous billionaire spending his fortune to save the nation from the elderly.

[havocmom]

10. The looming retirement of the Boomers just makes they crazy to spend the dough

before we draw on it.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. We should play "Let's Make A Deal". When those who say that are willing to slash the

military budget to less than $200 billion a year and we return the tax rates to pre-Raygun rates, we'll talk about 'entitlement' programs.

[spanone]

12. but those wars overseas, they're keeping us afloat.....

[zbdent]

13. and yet, not one retired registered ReRushican is willing to give up his

GM pension to save the company ...

[earth mom]

15. "Entitlements" is another name for Social Security which is next up on the chopping block.

We need to stop this bullshit and get the word out that "Entitlements" and "Fiscal Reform" is ALL about stealing Social Security from all of us! :grr:

[blogslut]

17. Grrrr! I hate that term "entitlements"

Is it one of Newt's lil' glossary words?