God, I hope people are paying attention to what these fools want to do…
They will not rest until they totally destroy the social safety net in America..
Do we really want Senior Citizens to end up sleeping and dying in the streets?
These guys are providing a lot of support for D.H. Lawrence’s observation:
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
I hope we yet prove him wrong by voting these people out of office….
From MotherJones.com:
For all the drastic spending cuts in GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed 2012 budget, there’s one major government program that it barely touches: Social Security. Now Republicans in both houses of Congress are preparing to dig into that sacrosanct entitlement as well.
On Wednesday morning, shortly before Obama’s big deficit speech, three Republican senators unveiled a plan to cut $6.2 trillion by paring back Social Security over the next two decades. Under a proposal unveiled by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the qualifying age for Social Security would rise from 67 to 70 by 2032, while benefits for everyone earning more than an average of $43,000 over their lifetime would be reduced. Graham took pains to explain that he wasn’t pushing for privatization but also slammed any tax increases to shore up Social Security, saying such a move would “destroy America.” “It’s much better to give up benefits on the end side than pay taxes now,” he explained.
Graham, who’s long led GOP efforts on Social Security, said that he could only find two other senators to join him at the podium on Wednesday, given the political risks involved in tackling the issue. “It shows the real reluctance of the GOP,” he said. And while House Republicans have made privatizing Medicare and cutting Medicaid their top budget priorities, Graham said that Social Security reform needed to be moved to the front of the queue. “It’s the place to start entitlement reform. Once you fix the Social Security problem, move to Medicare,” he told Mother Jones.
via Republicans: Let’s Cut Social Security, Too | Mother Jones.
Lost in the 21st Century 
My Thoughts: On Tax Day and the Social Contract
Today is Tax Day, the deadline for filing one’s income taxes in the USA. Even though I filed mine a while back, I still always stop and ponder our tax situation on the deadline day.
First of all, I pay a lot of taxes and I really don’t mind it. I’m lucky enough to have a good job, at least for now, so I don’t mind contributing to the good of the country.
I don’t mind paying Medicare and Social Security withholding taxes as they are a part of the social contract we have with the government to support today’s seniors now and ensure we aren’t destitute and without medical care when we get old. I’ve kept my part of this bargain by paying into the system since I was 16 years old and I expect the government to live up to their end of the deal and not change things this late in the game.
I don’t mind paying taxes even though I’m a Gay man who can’t file a joint return with his partner. I don’t mind paying taxes to support education even though we will never have children. I don’t mind paying taxes to build high-speed rail and save our crumbling infrastructure. I don’t mind paying taxes to prevent those people and their children not as lucky as me from starving or doing without medical care. I don’t mind paying taxes to build give poor children a head start or to create jobs by exploring clean energy and energy efficient cars. I don’t mind paying taxes that support internet improvements and expansion so we can link the country to the world. I don’t mind paying taxes to provide benefits to our Veterans who have served our country. I don’t mind paying taxes to enrich our country’s cultural and artistic life.
I do mind that my taxes support unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I do mind that I pay more taxes than Exxon Mobile, GE and Bank of America, who don’t pay any. I do mind that my tax rate ended up being higher than the 17% tax rate that most of the wealthiest 1% of Americans paid- if they paid at all. I do mind that so many Corporations don’t pay any taxes and spend billions lobbying Congress to keep it that way.
I guess my thought has always been that we have an obligation to give back. It’s part of the social contract.
None of us will ever be completely happy with how our tax dollars are spent. But we do need to realize the obligation we have to society to pay these taxes. We also need to do our best to elect Representatives that will make everyone pay their fair share and use these tax funds to the benefit of the nation as a whole-not just the lucky few. That is becoming harder and harder to do as the Rich and the Corporations buy the Government piece by piece.
We have an obligation to learn the true positions of the people we elect to manage the nation’s finances. We are not doing our duty as Americans if we fall for public relations campaigns and smoke and mirrors that hide a Candidate’s true agenda. That certainly happened in last year’s Congressional Elections….
So on tax day, don’t resent having to pay. Remember, death and taxes are the only two inevitabilities in life.
Just think about how you can best work to be sure everyone pays their fair share and our nations funds are used wisely.
And I know, that alone, is asking a hell of a lot…..
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Filed under Medicare, Politics, Scott's Commentary
Tagged as Budget Deficits, Democrats, GOP, IRS, Medicare, politics, Republicans, Social Security, Tax Day, taxes, Tea Party, The Economy