Shiftless2
Well-known member
"Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor, because I'm being indicted for you." ~ Trump
Quotable Quotes
- Thread starter Shiftless2
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Alright S2.
Let's have it.
Would you say President Donald J. Trump has a messiah complex? A heroic martyr protected his unwashed throngs with his publicity gluttony?
"Messiah complex
- State of mind where a person believes they are a savior or will be
- The messiah complex is a mental state in which a person believes they are a prophet and will save or redeem people in a religious endeavour. The term can also refer to a state of mind in which an individual believes that they are responsible for saving or assisting others." Wikipedia
Shiftless2
Well-known member
"He will adapt when he gets all the facts." ~ former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Trump's stated intention to use presidential power to seek retribution
In this potentially fatal diseased state of Uncle Sam's body politic, we are obliged to:
a) read between the lines
b) be willing to dismiss, disregard such absurdities as that quoted here. BUT !!
Dismissing this incongruity should not obscure the broader political panorama. Apparently Speaker McCarthy was but one more victim, attempting to appease a democratic tyrant, Trump voters and their pandering politicians.
This Trump criminal cohort is both threatening, and attempting to devastate, and potentially destroy our Constitutional republic. Problem is, the less destructive politicians that would restrain this onslaught risk devastation or destruction themselves, if perceived as disloyal to Trump.
In McCathy's case, he is both: 1) no longer speaker, and 2) not a candidate for reelection. Trump has been a career ender for McCarthy and others (Pence comes to mind), and a life-ender for more than that.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
"I was the apple of his eye." ~ Trump on Putin
Shiftless2
Well-known member
"There are people who would cut Social Security -- throw our grandparents into poverty -- why? So that one of Zelensky's ministers can buy a bigger yacht? Kiss my ass. It's not happening." ~ Sen. J.D. Vance, on denying further US aid to Ukraine
"I've never thought they can win to begin with." ~ Sen. Tommy Tuberville
"I've never thought they can win to begin with." ~ Sen. Tommy Tuberville
"I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read of the effects of smoking that he gave up reading." Lord Conesford
OTO
"The Joe Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, ..." CFR Education Article by Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow Last updated December 8, 2023 9:00 am (EST)
$75 $Billion is hardly chump change. HOWEVER !
The standard of comparison Senator Vance has chosen is the Social Security budget which according to according to this source: https://www.federalbudgetinpictures.com/social-security-spending/
in 2019 spent over a $Trillion.
By my math over two years, the U.S. has spent approximately 0.075% of one year of our Social Security budget. That Senator Vance does not seem to justify your "throw our grandparents into poverty" histrionic hysteria. So calm down, and shut up.
You are arguing sir that it's better to repeat the lesson of WWII, that rather than strangle the megalomaniacal baby in his Russian crib, to snuff out Putin's aspirations in Ukraine while he is severely weakened by his own ill-preparedness,
you sir advocate allowing Putin to succeed, so that by the time YOU would be amenable to defense of vital U.S. interests, the Russian bear is on a global rampage.
Your argument is stupid.
Evidently so are you.
Merry Christmas
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Shiftless2
Well-known member
The combined funding shortfall for Social Security and Medicare is in the order of $150 Trillion (that is with a "T") so $75 billion is immaterial when you consider the overall picture.
I sense I weigh miss your point. My (ignorant?) counterpoint:
- I suspect the "$150 Trillion" figure is a ten year projection.
I was trying to equalize the time-scale comparison by applying the "yearly" standard.
The counterpoint you raise is a valid issue, but it's a different issue. As I understand your intended point, entitlements drive the U.S. federal budget into deficit. BUT !!
My intended more fundamental point is not that we don't have the $money, but instead that we're spending it anyway.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
By definition Social Security does not enter into the definition of the deficit or the national debt.
The "funding shortfall" is the amount by which the NPV of the promised benefits under those programs exceed the amount in the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds (it's not a simple calculation). And it's not a ten year projection - Social Security for example provides for regular pension payments for the rest of a retiree's life - on average that's going to be more than ten years. If in doubt remember that the last surviving widow of a Civil War veteran died in 1920 and was collecting a pension from the VA for all that time.
This article dates to 2009 but things have only gotten worse since then:
Social Security and Medicare: Trying to Tackle Two 800-pound Gorillas
While many people worry about the billions of dollars spent bailing out banks, auto makers and other sectors, shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security are what could ultimately sink efforts to revive the U.S. economy. As 78 million baby boomers begin to retire, funding for the government's two...
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
We administer (fund) Social Security, and the deficit grows. And as goes the deficit, so goes the debt.
S2,
I've cyber-known you long enough to know you can do the arithmetic here. Thus:
intended meaning is unclear to me.
We both know Social Security is a Ponzi scam, a pyramid scheme.
Except for inception, that's not much of a problem when those paying into the system outnumber those withdrawing from it by 5:1 margin.
That is no longer the case.
There is an obvious fix.
a) Lock OUT future prospective participants. NEVER pull the $rug out from under seasoned citizens. BUT !!
STOP making the problem worse.
Purge out the citizens engaged in the current system. Provide those that wish to migrate their Social Security retirement benefit to a more solid basis such as IRA / 401K.
b) Replace Social Security for future workers by substituting INDIVIDUAL accounts that each citizen pays in to their own account. They make payments into the system with every paycheck right now. Don't change that.
Instead direct that into a GOVERNMENT APPROVED retirement investment. Not Bolivian ostrich boas. Some sensible investment such as a no load S&P 500 index fund.
- boom - Done !
Note:
The "Y2K crisis" was a manifestation of the extreme $expense of computing back then. The "Y2K crisis" hit in about 1970 when 30 year mortgages ended in the two digit designated year "00" (zero zero).
Computers did the math, and correctly determined, based on the two digit date information provided them, that the mortgage would be paid off 70 years before the loan was approved.
It's a new millennium. We've made computing so cheap there are more transistors in our solar system than there are leaves on trees in the known universe.
So what?
So now government can afford to administer a program with 330 million Next Gen. Social Security plan participants. It's $expensive. $BUT !!
It's not as bad as the "$150 Trillion" problem cited in S2 $510.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
The definition of the debt (and the deficit) does not include SS.
Let's be extreme for a moment and assume that everyone wants out and the "new" program will provide the same level of benefits that they currently expect under SS. That's going to require the entire $150 T to finance. And that doesn't include the costs of administrating all those pensions.
BTW, that $150 T number does not include the underfunding of any number of state and municipal pensions. We've already seen municipalities declare bankruptcy because they can't continue to pay the pensions on their books.
Employing the definite article narrows the options to one. But there's more than one definition of debt. And the ones in common use, the traditional definitions of U.S. federal debt acknowledge we haven't run consecutive surpluses since the Clinton administration. AND !!
Even those do NOT include Social Security.
debt  (dĕt)n. 1. Something owed, such as money, goods, or services: used the proceeds to pay off her debts; a debt of gratitude. 2. An obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else: students burdened with debt. 3. The condition of owing: a young family always in debt. 4. Financial instruments, such as bonds, mortgages, and loans, that represent a claim to payment and rights of creditorship: invested in government debt; a company issuing debt. [Middle English dette, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *dēbita, pl. of Latin dēbitum, debt, neuter past participle of dēbēre, to owe; see ghabh- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] debtless adj. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. |
Care to select a preference from this assortment? Or would you prefer to share your own?
I'm grateful to you for mentioning this.
I'm a vehement deficit hawk. I'd personally like every level of U.S. government to dodge this bullet to the degree they can. I understand, even if all entitlements in the U.S. were eliminated there would still be jurisdictions that couldn't afford to maintain their high school arts program, etc.
But entitlements are a gargantuan burden, and incredibly, needlessly self-inflicted.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
"I still don't see evidence that links Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's activities. In fact, I see the exact opposite." ~ Rep. Ken Buck, who nonetheless voted for the impeachment inquiry
"All I can say is Donald J. Trump 2024, baby!" ~ Rep. Troy Nhels, asked what he hopes to gain from a Biden impeachment inquiry
"All I can say is Donald J. Trump 2024, baby!" ~ Rep. Troy Nhels, asked what he hopes to gain from a Biden impeachment inquiry
The human child's mind has the enviable capacity to fantasize utopia without realism. In the Trump dictatorship there will still be poison ivy, and rainy days.
But the constitutional democracy Republican's are party to will be gone. Evidently they're not smart enough to care.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
"Facts and honesty every day... We are the sworn enemies of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink." ~ Tucker Carlson, on what his new streaming platform will deliver
"You're not going to end your life without having been probably president, maybe vice president. I just don't think you will." ~ radio host Megyn Kelly to Carlson
"You're not going to end your life without having been probably president, maybe vice president. I just don't think you will." ~ radio host Megyn Kelly to Carlson
Shiftless2
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"They're poisoning the blood of our country." ~ Trump, on immigrants
"All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning." ~ Hitler, in Mein Kampf
"All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning." ~ Hitler, in Mein Kampf
I have the disappointing impression if these quotations were prominently featured on newspaper front pages Trump's poll position wouldn't drop much, and might even rise.
Freakonomics, did they stop teaching high school civics a generation or more ago?