My comments on the article – including extra commentary due to limited comment length – are below:
I would just like to point out that Social Security is not in any way a handout. I pay quite a bit of money into the program each and every paycheck. Yes, I am entitled to get my money back when I retire. It is MY money, with some interest, that I would be getting – how do you call that a handout? Is your 401k a handout? How about a Certificate of Deposit or Annuity?
Unemployment insurance is also not in any way a handout. My employer pays into it and it is only used when needed, just like any other insurance. Its not a handout.
I pay in to Medicare.
None of the items that you have called out are actually “welfare.”
I agree that they are abused in some cases. We definitely need to go after the people who abuse the programs, people who take money from the programs to pay for other things (like congress). People who work for under a year, ‘have an accident’ or ‘get fired’ and draw unemployment or disability for as long as possible, go back to work and repeat the process over and over again, should be dealt with – barred from the program for life on the third time.
How about we get wages and salaries to increase? How about we get companies to pay their fair share of taxes instead of the top rate of 3.4% they might pay now? (look up “effective tax rate”)
Why are Republicans looking to cut benefits that people have already paid for? Poor management of the funds is no excuse to deny payment of what was agreed upon.
It is time we stop giving big handouts to business in the form of tax breaks and loopholes and stop trying to make up the income difference by taking it away from the workers, the poor and the elderly.
Stay tuned for a big post coming some time Wednesday.
I would also like to share a comment on the article here :
GenerationX | Mar 8, 2011 04:10 PM ET
After World War II, the Greatest Generation instated the 70-94% upper-income tax brackets to pay off the staggering national debt, which was at 109% of GDP at that time. It worked! This country had the most wide scale prosperity in its history while these tax brackets were in effect because corporations put their excess profits back into the wages & benefits of workers rather than funnel them to top executives like they do now. These top tax brackets will create jobs and stimulate the economy, just like they did from the 1940’s-60’s while they were in effect. There is no other solution.
and a few unrelated links for you to check out :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/10/wisconsin-usa
“The Republican governor’s budget plan would open the state up to a corporate asset-grab not seen since robber baron capitalism”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html?src=twrhp
“A basic educational challenge is not that teachers are raking it in, but that they are underpaid.”