The penalty is also meant to defray the costs of saving your uninsured ass if you should, shockingly, get sick without insurance.
The penalty is so small that’s it’s a fucking rounding error. If you’re going to sound off today, at least say something smart for a change.
But somehow, the Party of individual responsibility objects when individuals are expected to be responsible for their own healthcare costs.
The Party of Individual Responsibliity laughed at the mandate because the Demosocialists set it so small that it was obvious it wouldn’t promote individual responsibility.
Strange.
Not at all. It all worked out as predicted.
Because, when Republicans are in power, debt doesn’t matter, which is why it always explodes under Republican leadership.
I agree, it is counterproductive and bad governance.
It’s also not an accurate portrayal of a reasonable concern. It isn’t as though Republicans have been secretive about their intentions.
It’s also no secret that the entitlements programs, if left to their own devices under current law, will cut benefits by 25–30% over the next 10–25 years.
We know it’s no secret because every quarter the Fed Chairman, be it Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, BobandCarolandTedandAlice, goes in front of the House and Senate subcommittees, where they are invariably asked (always by a Republican, because the Dems would love for this to just go away) about the state of the entitlements and the risk they pose to the future economy.
The Chairman, whoever it is, always answers the same way (paraphrasing):
If you fucking morons don’t get your shit together and decide how you’re going to fix the entitlements before it’s too late, you’re going to have a human tragedy of epic proportions on your hands, and if you try to fix it AT THAT TIME, you’ll crash the goddamn economy in the process.
There are two ways to fix it, and I’ll spell them out for you, because you’re probably clueless on this matter, too. The Congress can either CUT benefits, or RAISE taxes. Simple. If they choose the latter, the pain of the tax increases will hit the middle class the hardest and immediately, because there’s not enough money in the bank accounts of the rich to fix the freaking entitlements. If they choose the former, they can put the future pain on people who are not yet retired, have 15 or so years left before they retire, and can make accomodations for the changes. Make sense?
OBVIOUSLY, the GOP would prefer to cut benefits, because that’s how they prefer to fix things, and the Dims would like to raise taxes, because that’s how THEY prefer to fix things. That’s only new news if you’re an ostrich.
So, posting articles that say that the GOP wants to cut entitlement spending is a little like pointing out that the grass is green. But for some reason, every time the GOP tries to tell anyone the truth, that the entitlements are on track to fuck us all up, the Demosocialists go all hair-on-fire and pretend there’s not a problem with the entitlements at all (what a fucking joke THAT is) and the GOP are just being the same old Scrooges who want to kick granny out of her wheelchair.
Sorry. Tired of it. But it STILL has nothing to do with the tax plan. The two are unrelated issues, because the SS and Medicare money is kept in its own Trust Funds, and the gummint by law cannot bail them out from the General Fund. They must either cut benefits or raise taxes.
Indeed, Paul Ryan, who used Social Security survivor benefits to put himself through college, has been fantasizing about cutting these programs since the college days they paid for.
Yea whatever. The point remains that the programs either need to be cut or taxes need to be raised. If you want to make it all personal because Ryan’s dad died young, then go ahead. That makes you out to be the prick, not him. And doesn’t mean Ryan is a hypocrite, because his dad PAID FOR those benefits. SS is not a welfare program, you know, although the primary solution that the Dims always suggest to fix it WOULD turn it into a welfare program.
Bottom line, nothing Ryan says or does or has said or has done changes the FACT that the entitlements have a future funding problem.
Which is literally the best representation of the libertarian mindset I’ve ever seen. Every libertarian I’ve ever met is blithely unaware of all of the significant ways they’ve benefited from the socialist programs they hate so very much.
Oh, put a cork in it, Ron. SS and Medicare aren’t SOCIALIST programs. They do not replace any going concern (e.g., “means of production” — neither of those programs works in the real world) and they are PAID FOR in advance through the payroll taxes. The costs are socialIZED, but that does not make them socialIST.
Sheesh.
