A Democratic congresswoman maintained that the imminent plummet off the fiscal cliff shouldn’t be used as an “excuse” for entitlement reform.
“I don’t believe that my Republican colleagues want to see taxes go up on 100 percent, but they do need to come to the table and counter the proposal. If they want changes on entitlements, they need to say what those changes are,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) said on MSNBC.
“I know that where we all draw the line in the sand is, is that there’s ways to find savings everywhere,” she continued. “However, this is not the time to use the fiscal problem as an excuse to completely break the guarantee that we’ve had with the American public for decades.”
When asked whether the bigger problem is revenue or Democrats not wanting entitlements touched, Bass responded, “Grover Norquist.”
“You had several Republicans who expressed that they were willing to moderate their view, and that they felt their most important pledge was to the U.S. Constitution and not to Grover Norquist,” she said. “What did Grover Norquist do? He took their quotes, he called them up, he had conversations with them, and he read them line-by-line their quote, and then essentially threatened them with primaries. He’s the problem. I think if Grover Norquist wants to run government, he needs to run for office.”
“The other question is, will John Boehner lead his caucus, or will his caucus lead him?” Bass continued. “And so, if John Boehner leads his caucus, then he will be able to identify 100 votes, 120 votes. He can come over and talk to the Democrats and say, ‘Do you have 100 votes, 120 votes that we can put together, and get this deal done?’”
Gee, Ms. Bass, who’s leading your caucus? The 0? Harry Reid? Chuck Schumer? Steny Hoyer? Nancy Pelosi? We cannot stop this spiral into the debt hole without plugging many of the entitlement spending whirlpools. Raising rates on the “Wealthy” will get you manybe $100 billion per year. The deficit is $1.2 trillion annually. That math just doesn’t work.
– ass Bass.
Ms. B_ass is just one of many MSNBC useful “spindiots”. They all know the math can never work, but to them that doesn’t matter a bit. The show ….er,narrative…. must go on. Bi-partisanship is required for kicking the can down the road some more without repercussions or regrets: neither side will be able ever to say “I told you so” without getting it right back! That’s the gameplan. We all lose except for them; they get reelected if they played their cards right, and MSNBC keeps getting the low info voters to tune in their “trashative”. We just had an election to prove it. From Hopping’ Change to Changin’ Hops … Think I’ll just have me another drink!
Many of us men are completely ineligible or highly unlikely to get anything fromk most of the current entitlement programs. For example, when I was full-time caregiver to my late mother and stepfather and could have used food stamps to help stretch the dollars, I was told right off that as a single male with no minor dependents, I could forget it.
Many people about my age (about 50) and younger are likewise looking at the ruthless means-testing—if not the outright end of—Social Security and Medicare by the time we get old enough to qualify for it. It’ll be like trying to get federal financial aid for university when I was younger. “Oh, you own an old house, Mr. K-Man? Then you have assets. No Social Security for you. We gotta keep it for those less fortunate.” I expect to get little or nothing from these programs for the elderly. Most of those who will still get something are likely to have been irresponsible, with the majority of those being women who chose to be spendthrifts.
So it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the sooner these programs die, the better, as people (working men) like me are unlikely to benefit from them anyway. The leeches who will be the only ones left who still qualify after these proposed changes deserve nothing. Too bad they probably won’t get that…
“However, this is not the time to use the fiscal problem as an excuse to completely break the guarantee that we’ve had with the American public for decades.” – that guarantee being, “you vote for us and we’ll continue to rob others to give you ‘free stuff’”. Amazing how lib/progs can regard horrendously expensive programs created by a group of pandering politicians almost 80 years ago as totally sancrosact and beyond the reach of any attempts to reform or end them. Like K-Man, I expect that the government will determine me to be “ineligible” for Social Security and/or Medicare if and when I make it to retirement age.