CEOs Seeking to Slash Social Security Stumble Over Their Own Hypocrisy (via Moyers & Company)
Billionaire Pete Peterson once thought it would be a good idea to make rich CEOs the public face of his long-standing campaign to slash Social Security. Guys like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt have indeed won many a battle…
Discretionary vs. Entitlement spending. There is no such thing in the U.S. as federal entitlement spending. Can anyone give an example of any such current federal entitlement spending? On the other hand the 18% of the federal budget ($600+ billion dollars) spent by the Defense Department is discretionary spending. When the Republicans, people like Peterson and Blankfein, tell us that Social Security and Medicare are entitlement programs they are simply lying. Every worker contributes a percentage of their gross weekly paycheck to SSI and Medicare. All of those contributions come back to them in the form of services or money at some future date. Discretionary spending, like the money that goes to the Defense Dept, is spent and will never be seen again. Just because the federal government guarantees payment as in the case of U.S. Savings Bonds or Social Security or Medicare doesn’t make it an entitlement program.
Let’s take a quick poll – to which phrase in the above article did you have the most positive reaction?:
“Fix the Debt”
“Shared Sacrifice”
“Trolled Epically”
Oh, I’d tell you which one I liked best, but that might skew the results.