Typical response to cuts: sequestration

[Links2k]

It doesn't matter at all who owns it or proposed it...as long as Obama has the entire press in his back pocket (which he does) he can say anything he wants, blame the Republicans for anything that goes wrong or doesn't work and the bring-dead population (i.e. about 52% of the population) are going go believe him.

I agree with you, but the Republicans are not without blame. They are all in this shell game together and the American public is the recipient of the crap soup that they are serving.

[Links2k]

It doesn't matter at all who owns it or proposed it...as long as Obama has the entire press in his back pocket (which he does) he can say anything he wants, blame the Republicans for anything that goes wrong or doesn't work and the bring-dead population (i.e. about 52% of the population) are going go believe him.

I agree with you, but the Republicans are not without blame. They are all in this shell game together and the American public is the recipient of the crap soup that they are serving.

Cut it all???
So I guess our parents and grandparents who have paid into SS all their lives on the promise of receiving a retirement income should just go ahead and starve to death and decrease the surplus elderly population. We can just forget about the fact that if these people had simply be allowed to save the same amount of money stolen they could easily be millionaires...no, we'll just steel their money while they are working and then say...you don't get anything back; sucks to be you!

And for our soldiers and sailors who are lucky enough to actually server a career without getting killed should just go "f" them selves too.

And let's not forget the truly poverty-stricken who actually can't work or care for themselves...I guess they can just go die in the street...we can send along the meat wagons to haul their bodies off like they did during the black plague.

There are PLENTY of things that need to be cut including entire departments of the government that shouldn't exist at all but just "cutting everything" is about as helpful as saying "let them eat cake".

Good point. I say "Cut Everything" in the sense that the only way that the government will look at budget cuts objectively is if everything is on the table. No, I really do not believe that the elderly, poor or veterans should suffer because of stupid politicians. I do believe that as long as some politicians can protect their sacred cows, the needed budget cuts won't be reasonably done. Edited February 22, 2013 by LINKS2K

[Links2k]

And how much does it matter, at this point, how much you and I paid in to SS, if the bill can't be paid? If you have
to borrow the money to keep the illusion going that there is some kind of lockbox for your retirement funds to come
from, what are you going to do when you can't borrow? I'd rather do something personal to some of those who stole
us blind, than to keep borrowing from some other country knowing full well I couldn't pay it back.
 
I don't expect to see one thin dime out of my retirement. I know how much I paid in to the penny, in one program, not
so warm and fuzzy about SS. I'll never see that.

I try not to think about it. SS is legalized pimping.

[RobertNashville]

I agree with you, but the Republicans are not without blame. They are all in this shell game together and the American public is the recipient of the crap soup that they are serving.

I agree....my only point was that with Obama and his campaign staff (the media) who is actually to blame or not to blame is immaterial.

Edited February 22, 2013 by RobertNashville

[RobertNashville]

And how much does it matter, at this point, how much you and I paid in to SS, if the bill can't be paid? If you have

to borrow the money to keep the illusion going that there is some kind of lockbox for your retirement funds to come

from, what are you going to do when you can't borrow? I'd rather do something personal to some of those who stole

us blind, than to keep borrowing from some other country knowing full well I couldn't pay it back.

 

I don't expect to see one thin dime out of my retirement. I know how much I paid in to the penny, in one program, not

so warm and fuzzy about SS. I'll never see that.

I do and frankly, I'll likely need it.  Even if I, very near the age where I'll start receiving it, didn't expect it or need it, we have some 40 million recipients on SS now who are age 65 or older (at least we do if I read the stat correctly)...for many of them, that's all they have. Simply cutting them off would be more inhuman that the Nazi death camps of WW2.

Regardless of what happens to me or people of my age, this country OWES it to those already on SS to ensure they continue receiving it...if we can't do that then this country has no moral right to exist at all, in my always humble opinion.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

That's the good thing, or bad, about when money runs out, it doesn't discriminate. It doesn't matter whether

or not you or I need it, just that it is gone. Between inflation, which is caused by government, and the spending

problem we have, it just won't matter.

 

I agree with you about this country not deserving to exist, except that it should be brought on by ridding ourselves

of the rascals who are spending us into oblivion, which Links is right that both sides are causing the problem, so

DHS's select fire weapons won't do them any good when they find out there is no use for them except to add insult

to injury. All of it fits together.

 

When you run a government without a budget, just to get away with spending without authorization, you end up

with no government to exist, anyway. Changes will happen on their own. I just hope to not see a banana republic

rising in it's ashes.

 

Plenty of blame to spread around, even us.

[enfield]

Obama is playing poker and most of the Republicans don't know it.  The ones who DO know it suck at poker.

[Moped]

Let them cut everything at this point.  They keep talking about the Pentagon Civilians getting furlowed 22 days and losing 20% of their pay.  Well I'm sorry, but back in 2008, I had my hours cut from 40 to 32 a week in order to save the jobs of other employees.  It hurt like hell, but I didn't see Government Employees having to go through that, then.  Just because you work for the Government, doesn't make you any more special than anyone else.  They will survive just like my family and I did then.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Moped

[kieefer]

:waiting: I'm so sick of our government, after this crisis passes when will the next catastrophe occur? When is the next time that they will tell us that the world will end or worse the children won't get a free breakfast.

 

What is it, 15 billion that they want to spend next year, hell they piss that away on hookers and liquor. F-them all.

[Guest 270win]

Moped,

 

You are right about cutting back.  Many folks have had to do the same and have had a tough time with work.  I have never personally known so many people in such a short period of time losing work, having trouble getting work after losing work, or hours cut.  Memphis area has had a tough time with foreclosures too because of it. 

 

The feds can handle an automatic 2% spending cut.  That is a lot smaller of a spending cut than I have had to make in my own home this past few years.  Now with Obamacare my health insurance has had to turn into basically catastrophic insurance, so i'll be paying thousands out of my pocket before my insurance pays anything beyond a simple office visit. 

 

It is all in how the fed gov wants to spend what is given to them by Congress.  Don't believe this fear garbage that the world will end of they don't get their debt ceiling raised again or this 'fiscal cliff' silliness.  Or if we don't bail out AIG, GM, Chrysler that the whole world will end. 

 

I've had my own fiscal cliff and i'm ready to see what happens when the gov has its own made up fiscal cliff and is forced to waste just a little less of my tax money.

[JPR1959]

This needs to be stated again.  The government is spending $15 billion this year over last year.  This is a cut??? 

 

Please go to http://www.usdebtclock.org and tell me how you plan on funding everything.  I'm waiting to hear it.  Look at the very bottom of the website at the unfunded debt.  I've paid into the system and will need social security, but the reality is our government can't pay for it.

[RobertNashville]

This needs to be stated again.  The government is spending $15 billion this year over last year.  This is a cut??? 

 

Please go to http://www.usdebtclock.org and tell me how you plan on funding everything.  I'm waiting to hear it.  Look at the very bottom of the website at the unfunded debt.  I've paid into the system and will need social security, but the reality is our government can't pay for it.

But isn't that just the point, not everything needs to be funded; in fact, there are whole departments with huge staffs and assets that need to have not just a budget cut but completely eliminated.

No matter what program or department is cut it's going to hurt but it has to be done. They could go a LONG way with SS and Medicare if they just converted it to private operations for those who still have enough working life left to prepare for their old age/retirement.  The military and likely everything that isn't done away with will need to be cut and cut significantly.

 

The country needs to do something because the house of cards IS going to fall...something as simple as interest rates rising to historical averages would be enough to cause us to collapse because were the country paying almost nothing (%) on the debt right now it would take the entire revenue of the U.S. just to pay interest on the debt leaving ZERO to fund anything else.

[Guest HvyMtl]

Gentlemen, these cuts are not true cuts.  It is more on the side of a cut of growth of the government.  And of course, any beaurocrat that has his budget threatened in any way will show the most "doom and gloom" aspect possible, to prevent the cut.  

[G27]

[RobertNashville]

Yes...but you'll won't hear anyone in the Obama administration saying that or many Republicans for that matter.

 

This is a game and it's a game that everyone is going to lose except of course the ones who make the rules - they'll be Okay no matter what they make the rest of the country suffer.

[DennyB]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/26/dhs-to-release-thousands-illegal-immigrants-blaming-budget-cuts/

 

This is what Obama is willing to do to prevent the sequester. Unbelievable.

[Jonnin]

I am almost to the point that I hope the sequester kicks in and is implemented.  

[kieefer]

I am almost to the point that I hope the sequester kicks in and is implemented.  

I hope the sequester kicks in and is implemented.  Call their bluff.

[npgunner]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/26/dhs-to-release-thousands-illegal-immigrants-blaming-budget-cuts/

 

This is what Obama is willing to do to prevent the sequester. Unbelievable.

Makes me sick.  If only the masses understood the lengths he was willing to go to complete his agenda. 

 

I agree with those who say "cut it all."  I myself, in my mid/late-20's will never see a dime of the SS (and likely Medicare) money I've paid into the system.  I am expected to give the Feds my SS taxes, to fund the SS income of those several generations older than I; BUT in order to have ANY hope of retirement (since I can't count on SS), I also must invest (of my own volition) my salary into other options as well.  So, in essence, the money I must put into investments to secure my own retirement is "stolen" from me (just as purportedly the SS investment was stolen from the elderly), since I have no choice (other than plan to work until I die) but to invest it (instead of other things; i.e., buying guns).  Since these investments are dependent on the performance of the stock market; they too are also subject to government interference.  Those who argue that the elderly "need" this money; forget that they were the ones alive at the time (and thus voted for; or allowed them to be voted into office) these crooks started there infiltration into the system to create these problems.  I am from the generation who will now inherit the problems handed down to us (also one of the few of my generation who understand the state of the situation).  

 

I'm not trying to sound insensitive to the needs of the elderly; rather stating that I'm becoming ever fed-up with the idea that it is my generations' duty to provide for the retirement of those who voted these crooks into office so many years ago.

[Jonnin]

The elderly have saved all their lives for retirement, paid off their homes and cars, get a break on property taxes, have no education/child expenses, and in general should be in pretty good shape apart from medical costs which are government assisted.   What did I miss?  I do not know everyone of course (and obviously some elderly did not save up or plan ahead properly and are hurting by their own hands) but it seems like the other way around is much more common these days ---- tons of younguns with no job and a sack full of whelps moving back in with grandma to mooch off her savings.   The elderly would not need so much help if their kids would grow up!!!! 

[RobertNashville]

The elderly have saved all their lives for retirement, paid off their homes and cars, get a break on property taxes, have no education/child expenses, and in general should be in pretty good shape apart from medical costs which are government assisted.   What did I miss?  I do not know everyone of course (and obviously some elderly did not save up or plan ahead properly and are hurting by their own hands) but it seems like the other way around is much more common these days ---- tons of younguns with no job and a sack full of whelps moving back in with grandma to mooch off her savings.   The elderly would not need so much help if their kids would grow up!!!! 

Maybe you missed a little reality...many, perhaps even most elderly haven't saved all their lives because they barely got buy or even if they were diligent about saving couldn't save enough to cover everything without SS; that's partially because for decades, all the financial planning seminars, some put out BY the government, always included Social Security as part of the planning process.  Since the government GUARANTEED (that's called a promise where I come from) it would be there, the people who are not on it or very close to SS age thought that the benefits would be there...silly them I suppose.

I also wonder, anyone who would say "they should have saved"; how is your nest egg?  If you keep saving at your current rate will YOU have enough to live once you are too old to work? If the answer is no or I don't think so then I wouldn't throw stones at the elderly for not "saving enough".

Also keep in mind that even for those elderly who had good savings many of them have seen half of their value wiped out in the last few years turning what was a comfortable nest egg into something that can longer support them.

 

Medicare hardly covers what most people think, out of pocket just for the medigap policies are more than many here probably pay for their own, better coverage and I know many elderly whose monthly out-of-pocket expenses are more per month that many here likely make working full time; one friend's monthly out-of-pocket outlay for their medicine is approaching $3,000 per month and that's WITH medicare coverage and that isn't an extreme example.

 

With as many members as TGO has here I would suspect that at least some have elderly parents or other relatives (or are themselves) that are either wholly or mostly dependent on SS for their very lives (i.e. to cover food, clothing, shelter, etc.) - if you want to just cut it all off...are you going to take your parents into you home and support them until they pass or are you just going to say, sorry; you aren't my problem because you didn't save enough or couldn't see 40 years ago that SS wouldn't be there?

 

We don't need to cut it all, we need to cut a lot but it should be done while using our heads for something other than a hat rest...this country made promises to your parents and grandparents and it sure as hell needs to do ALL it can to keep those promises; even if it's painful. It may be painful for many but I'd rather go through some pain than face the shame of telling some 80 year old that you'll just have to go and die because I don't want to pay in any more knowing I won't get any out.

Edited February 26, 2013 by RobertNashville

[Guest 6.8 AR]

And, all I say, again, is that it won't matter when the money runs out, Robert. The money has effectively run out

years ago. Borrowing will come to a halt sooner than you think. I'm not trying to be insensitive, Robert, since I will

be one of those affected soon enough. I just see the writing on the wall. It will not matter, in very short order, whether

there is a check, spit, promise, IOU going to all those who were made promises to(lied to).

 

If you can't keep the promise, what difference does it make who is looking through those kaleidoscope eyes when

there is no value left to tender. I'm just not counting on anything being left over after the political class(all of them)

takes their cut. Otherwise, it's a pipe dream.

[RobertNashville]

And, all I say, again, is that it won't matter when the money runs out, Robert. The money has effectively run out

years ago. Borrowing will come to a halt sooner than you think. I'm not trying to be insensitive, Robert, since I will

be one of those affected soon enough. I just see the writing on the wall. It will not matter, in very short order, whether

there is a check, spit, promise, IOU going to all those who were made promises to(lied to).

 

If you can't keep the promise, what difference does it make who is looking through those kaleidoscope eyes when

there is no value left to tender. I'm just not counting on anything being left over after the political class(all of them)

takes their cut. Otherwise, it's a pipe dream.

I don't believe the answer is to just do away with it...there IS a better answer than just saying, sorry...it's gone; go starve to death.

I've looked at government spending enough to know, not just believe, that doing away with it is not the only answer - it's a question of choices more than a question of ability.

 

[jughead]

let it happen dont have much but willing to take my chances if it will stop this run away spending

[Guest zort]

well as long as we have obama care