Another class warrior

Our Entitlement Paralysis
By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, December 28, 2005; Page A21
Washington Post

[...]
Until we challenge this moral logic -- the crux of entitlement politics -- public opinion will resist change and our paralysis will continue. The responsibility for this failure is widespread: among liberals, who like massive government programs; among conservatives, who fantasize about "free market" alternatives to Social Security and Medicare; among pundits and "experts," who speak of the "entitlement crisis" in meaningless generalities or incomprehensible technicalities. Our resulting inaction compounds many future dangers of an aging society: higher taxes, slower economic growth, squeezed government spending for non-elderly programs and more conflict between younger taxpayers and older beneficiaries
[...]

Again, another clueless pundit writes about Social Security and Medicare. And again his solution is to cut benefits and raise the retirement age. Not a mention about the SocSec funds being spent to finance the government's deficits over the years. You know, I don't think that anyone who actually works for a living would be calling to raise the retirement age. Try it. Ask the next person you see actually doing physical labor what they think about jacking up the retirement age.

I also see he's too timid or stupid to realize that the bush tax cuts are one of the largest causes of today's deficit, that and the immoral war in Iraq.

Why none of these so-called intelligent people ever think about just raising the limit on payroll contributions to, say, $100,000. Many studies have shown that this alone will go a long way to "fixing" Social Security for the long-term (75 years) future. Oh yeah. I forgot. That would mean a "tax increase". It would actually be an insurance premium increase. And you can ask the residents of Florida and other Gulf Coast states about those.

As for Medicare. The republican solution has already increased costs to that program, with its drug benefit scam. And that's only getting started. But the drug companies are covered quite nicely, thank you.

As for any talk about private accounts and investment. The stock market is only now beginning to approach where it was on Jan 1, 2001. We have a contagion of insider trading (Frist, for one) that steals the resources of the small investor.

So. My opinion. just another shot in the class warfare being waged against the working people of this country. Until the working classes start to vote these assholes out of office, and find candidates who will look out for their concerns, we will continue to lose ground. And as for the clueless asshole pundits, tell them to grab a shovel or hammer for a few years, and then come back, and let us know.