The Morning Rant: J.V. Edition

Lost in the joys of winning day after day is the reality that the federal government is still hemorrhaging money...our money! Spending on healthcare is approaching 30% of the budget, Social Security is about 25% Defense is about 15%, and the rest of the oh-so-vital federal government pisses away about the same...15%. What is going to get nasty is the tab for interest on the debt, which with rising interest rates is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

This is the one area that President Trump's business experience is not helpful. He is used to highly leveraged deals, with the opportunity to refinance and refinance and possibly just declare bankruptcy if cash flow doesn't cover the debt service. But the federal government doesn't have that option, and he needs to start swinging that budget-cutting axe a lot more forcefully.

Trump sees federal deficit soar in first full year

President Trump oversaw a massive increase in the deficit during his first full year in office, the Treasury Department announced Monday, pointing to rising spending and stagnant taxes that threaten to send the government back into the realm of trillion-dollar shortfalls.
The government ended fiscal 2018 at $779 billion in the red, or 17 percent more than fiscal 2017, which was split between President Obama and Mr. Trump.

I don't know what the actuarial tables will say about this, but it seems like the only way to dig ourselves out of the Social Security quagmire is to stop indexing to inflation and couple that with an option to opt out in exchange for a decrease in the SS tax. Disability and Medicaid could be made more efficient simply by cracking down on the unbelievable abuses inherent in the systems. But...in the long run, without comprehensive overhauls, we are screwed.

******
Police are BANNED from sticking poppies on their cars as chiefs are slammed for 'political correctness'

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- John McCrae
******
So...in 40 years the sea rose 16cm, yet there is more land? Could it be that the system is just a tad more complex than the AGW cheerleaders claimed?

Sea Level Shock...Satellite Imagery Shows Coral Islands Expanding! ..."Results Challenge Existing Narratives Of Island Loss"

Paul Kench and his colleagues have now measured the shorelines of all 101 islands of Tuvalu for the last 40 years using satellite imagery. The result: The land area grew by just under 3% during this period, despite a fairly strong regional sea-level rise of 4 mm per year.

******
I don't agree with some of the sentiment expressed here, but this isn't a frothing-at-the-mouth rant about police brutality and evil White people.

Four Years After Ferguson - Colion Noir Visits with Local Residents after Michael Brown's death

A bleak history of economic upheaval, antagonism, mistrust and misunderstanding. Four years later, Colion Noir heads to Ferguson, Missouri and visits with local St. Louis residents to explore the issues that led up to and came out of Michael Brown’s death and the riots that followed.

******
My Twitter Feed

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 st

Posted by: ALH at October 16, 2018 10:59 AM (uLuPn)

2 It been a heck of a day at sea, sir. I spilled covfefe all over the desk.

Posted by: ALH at October 16, 2018 11:00 AM (uLuPn)

3 Good Morning Ya'll

Posted by: LMD Outer Banker at October 16, 2018 11:00 AM (YuQLm)

4 Top ten?

Posted by: CA Token at October 16, 2018 11:02 AM (IGpEV)

5 Read the content!

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at October 16, 2018 11:02 AM (qC1Sy)

6 The fed kicking up interest rates from .25% under Obama to 2% now, 1.75% increase or 8 times the rate under JEF, added almost $400 billion to the fed bill this year.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable and Profoundly Unserious at October 16, 2018 11:02 AM (pw+jk)

7 And made top 5!

Posted by: Blake - used bridge salesman at October 16, 2018 11:02 AM (qC1Sy)

8 Colion, Ferguson wasn't that great before the hustlers/looters burnt the area out.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 16, 2018 11:03 AM (iwiQ1)

9 Trump is shredding Warren on twitter.

She's finished as a potential 2020 candidate.

Harvard previously referred to her as a POC?

HAHAHA

Posted by: HA at October 16, 2018 11:03 AM (MAstk)

10 "Results Challenge Existing Narratives Of Island Loss"

Yes, but do they deconstruct the intersectionalities of gender and identity?

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at October 16, 2018 11:03 AM (O7MnT)

11 pointing to rising spending and stagnant taxes"

Ah, tax "revenues" are up by several percentage points, are they not?

It's Medicrap and SS spending.

But hey, Trump likes leveraging. Or something journalists only know of from watching movies.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (6qErC)

12 I don't know what the actuarial tables
will say about this, but it seems like the only way to dig ourselves out
of the Social Security quagmire is to stop indexing to inflation and
couple that with an option to opt out in exchange for a decrease in the
SS tax.

Start transitioning the retirement age up a few years, as well.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (oVJmc)

13 This is an amusing way to frame how bit the Mega Million jackpot is tonight - win and become richer than Taylor Swift.

The Horde does have tickets right?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (iwiQ1)

14 Spending on healthcare is approaching 30% of the budget, Social Security is about 25%
===========

Let's not forget about all those new and improved Americans we've been importing by the millions who've never paid a dime into the system.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (vg8iE)

15 Under Obama deficit spending expanded to $1.2T. That's $1.2T above incoming money. And they are still spending this insane amount despite record tax collections. Every budget that congress passes lards in more pork and it will never stop until the government goes bankrupt.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:05 AM (mpXpK)

16 @realDonaldTrump 2 minutes ago

"Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees." @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!

Posted by: Tami at October 16, 2018 11:05 AM (cF8AT)

17 "It's Time to End Women's Sports"

American Thinker: https://tinyurl.com/yaelobml

Posted by: Meade Lux Lewis at October 16, 2018 11:05 AM (HiLJ1)

18 9 Trump is shredding Warren on twitter.

She's finished as a potential 2020 candidate.

Harvard previously referred to her as a POC?

HAHAHA
Posted by: HA at October 16, 2018 11:03 AM (MAstk)

===========

She'll still run.

She'll still run well in certain states. Maybe even take a primary or two.

Because Democrats want a fighter, and she fights.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (9ZlHt)

19 "Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer..."

Bwahahahaha!

Posted by: Tami at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (cF8AT)

20 "Colion Noir"? That does not sound like a real name.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (Fz8ov)

21 Mega Millions = Can't lose if ya don't play..

Posted by: IP at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (cn3ZE)

22 "It's Time to End Women's Sports"

Seems to me that's already happening.

/snort

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (6qErC)

23 top 25

Posted by: SturmToddler at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (8D42x)

24 "Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer..."

Bwahahahaha!
========

Oh!! You're mocking her!!!!

*cries in hanky*

Posted by: Leslie Bathroom Stahl at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (vg8iE)

25 15 Under Obama deficit spending expanded to $1.2T. That's $1.2T above incoming money. And they are still spending this insane amount despite record tax collections. Every budget that congress passes lards in more pork and it will never stop until the government goes bankrupt.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:05 AM (mpXpK)

=========

Pork isn't what's driving our deficits.

It's all Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (9ZlHt)

26 Home, home on the range....

Posted by: Professor High Cheecks Warren at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (Z216Q)

27 So...in 40 years the sea rose 16cm, yet there is more land?
Posted by CBD

>I guess we forgot to account for Archimedes principle of water displacement.

The Earth ain't flat nor round. It's a bathtub.

Posted by: Delaforce the Air Mechanic at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (AQ/cL)

28 Personally, I just want Social Security to fail already.

I've never thought that I would get any benefits from it, and I think it's high time I stopped paying taxes for it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (9ZlHt)

29 They told me if I voted for Donald Trump the oceans would subside.

Posted by: eleven at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (NLLmE)

30 "Results Challenge Existing Narratives Of Island Loss"

Islands with larger diameters are more likely to flip over. It's science.

Posted by: Hank Johnson at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (wW03z)

31 Every budget that congress passes lards in more pork and it will never stop until the government goes bankrupt.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:05 AM (mpXpK)
Vic, they haven't passed a budget (an ACTUAL budget) in years.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (oVJmc)

32 Spending is out of control. It is out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

Social Security is salvageable. Medicare is not. If federal medical spending were zero (Medicare, Medicaid grants, VA, all of it), we run in surplus despite all the stupid shit the government does. The medical problem must be solved, but no one wants to.

If the costs of medical care were to fall by, say, 50% (which should be achievable), then that pulls about 10 percentage points out of GDP - a technical depression. This would be a good thing as it all represents appalling malinvestment, but precisely *no one* will campaign on "I will solve the problem, but strap in because we're going to have a few seriously bad years while we dig out from all this. And those of you who bought expensive medical-related degrees to get into a growth industry: SURPRISE!"

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (I2dne)

33 Went over to Panama City the other day where I met up with my friend and his family. Folks, the devastation is worse than you can imagine. The trail of destruction doesn't just end a mile or two inland.

If you remember on radar, the monster eye of the storm was visible as it clipped Alabama's chin in the Wiregrass on its way into Georgia.

Nearly every tree was snapped about 30 feet up the trunk or so and debris was everywhere. Nearly every roof where the eyewall hit was gone.

I went to work with my chainsaw, lent my spare to another neighbor of my college buddy and we went through two cans of fuel apiece sawing thick limbs. I'll have more firewood than I'll know what to do with this season, that's for sure. We managed to cut and remove about 5 yards worth full of limbs and the cool fall weather helped us not have heart attacks out there.

They're saying power might not be restored for weeks. To get a cell signal, you have to get within 10 miles of where I live, which is 70 miles to the west. I've heard the cell signal dead zone is inland as well.

Continue to pray for the people of Panama City and other communities affected by the storm.

Posted by: grizzledcoastie at October 16, 2018 11:08 AM (FMgad)

34 25 Pork isn't what's driving our deficits.

It's all Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (9ZlHt)

I consider all those as pork.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:08 AM (mpXpK)

35 Start transitioning the retirement age up a few years, as well.
Posted by: Mr. Peebles

Start fining/seizing companies for age/hiring biases then.

You can't tell people that they can't retire until they're 70 when companies won't hire them after 55.

And yes, age bias in hiring IS a thing.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:08 AM (0mP7b)

36 Federal tax collections hit an all-time record in fiscal 2018, just concluded on Sept 30. So did deficit.

Spending is obviously the problem.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Vote Red! at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (Z216Q)

37 I still get a chuckle over that fawning magazine cover a few months back with Fauxcahontas jogging - "Look, it's a slightly less corrupt Hillary that can actually move!"

Posted by: jhawk90 at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (Xvo1a)

38 32 Spending is out of control. It is out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

Social Security is salvageable. Medicare is not. If federal medical spending were zero (Medicare, Medicaid grants, VA, all of it), we run in surplus despite all the stupid shit the government does. The medical problem must be solved, but no one wants to.

If the costs of medical care were to fall by, say, 50% (which should be achievable), then that pulls about 10 percentage points out of GDP - a technical depression. This would be a good thing as it all represents appalling malinvestment, but precisely *no one* will campaign on "I will solve the problem, but strap in because we're going to have a few seriously bad years while we dig out from all this. And those of you who bought expensive medical-related degrees to get into a growth industry: SURPRISE!"
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (I2dne)

============

The one piece that pisses me off is Medicaid.

It's provably ineffective at helping people with medical issues, costs about a trillion dollars a year, and if anyone talks about cutting it back at all, they're labeled as monsters who want the poor to die.

Now, if Trump could come out swinging against it, that might be the start of a fight that we could eventually win.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (9ZlHt)

39 Pork isn't what's driving our deficits.

It's all Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:07 AM (9ZlHt)

Math is hard.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (wYseH)

40 The 1930 federal budget adjusted for inflation would be 48 billion today. How about a 99% budget cut?

Posted by: Neil deGrasse It's not rape if I'm wearing the dress Tyson at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (1L9V9)

41 The amusing/pathetic thing about the increase in the size of the Coral Atolls is that during his journeys through the South Pacific over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin himself wrote a serious and well researched piece on the topic of how the South Sea Coral Islands had self-adjustment mechanisms that always kept them at about the same height above water, no matter whether the sea level rose or fell. (basically Coral Atolls are living things, that adjust themselves to changing circumstances)

The left has gone so far down the rabbit hole that they're making themselves forget all of the science that we've already known for a very long time.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (Kpl3J)

42 The nice thing about trimming government is that cuts will actually increase the health of the economy. Laying off steelworkers means less steel is produced. Laying off EPA bureaucrats can increase industrial production! And they know it. It also deprives our domestic enemies of funds, so it also works as a security measure.

When, not if, Republicans win this election, the President should take an axe to the federal government. Let FBI and Medicaid stooges go begging in the streets.

Posted by: trev006 at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (qbU78)

43 "How I learned to stop worrying and love the debt bomb"

It's coming and no politician will stop it.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (Mr80f)

44 added almost $400 billion to the ~~fed~~ U.S. Treasury Dept. bill this year.

Posted by: JAS at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (3HNOQ)

45 I thought I read that revenues were flat.. which is a good thing since all those tax cuts should have produced a downward trend in revenues.. but the stimulus on the economy means more tax revenues from all those people coming back into the workforce.

But, yeah.. we gotta get spending under control.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (438dO)

46 Federal tax collections hit an all-time record in fiscal 2018, just concluded on Sept 30."

Bbbbut tax cuts.

Or something.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (6qErC)

47 >>Trump is shredding Warren on twitter.

She's finished as a potential 2020 candidate.

Harvard previously referred to her as a POC?
- - -

Most tone deaf?
It didn't occur to her or her office to contact Cherokee Nation before her announcement.
That perfectly illustrates her take on "being Cherokee" - it's about PR, not being part of the Cherokee Nation.

Really, really screwed up.
Enjoy never running for POTUS!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (W+vEI)

48 Armistice Day 100th Anniversary coming up. Going to need to stock up on poppies early.

Posted by: Diogenes at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (0tfLf)

49 Buy gold and silver now!

Posted by: William DeVane at October 16, 2018 11:10 AM (3HNOQ)

50 Medicare/Medicaid is the real issue. Ever since the Clinton dynasty ramped up federal payments to the healthcare system, things have gone from sometimes bad to totally worse.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Vote Red! at October 16, 2018 11:11 AM (Z216Q)

51 You can't tell people that they can't retire until they're 70 when companies won't hire them after 55.

And yes, age bias in hiring IS a thing.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:08 AM (0mP7b)

This is why my current employer will have to drag me forcibly out the door and throw me on the cart.

I like it here and I know my marketability will not be the same if I find myself seeking a new job.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lonely Gloat-herd at October 16, 2018 11:11 AM (xPJvm)

52 actuarial tables...LoLz...that ole gag!!

Posted by: dananjcon at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (xqfqx)

53 Hands off my Social Security. I'm almost old enough to start getting a check.

I don't want to work until I'm 80.

Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

54 Funny take on Stormy Daniels stuff I saw:

Trump is so good at negotiating he managed to get a refund from a hooker!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (W+vEI)

55 Personally, I just want Social Security to fail already.

I've never thought that I would get any benefits from it, and I think it's high time I stopped paying taxes for it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

I've paid into it at the point of a gun for the last 39 years.

Tell me I get zero. Make sure your will is up to date.

THAT is a red line that a lot of people will draw in the sand.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (0mP7b)

56 I think health care, social security and defense together make
up about 70% of government spending.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (NWiLs)

57 The one piece that pisses me off is Medicaid.

It's provably ineffective at helping people with medical issues, costs about a trillion dollars a year, and if anyone talks about cutting it back at all, they're labeled as monsters who want the poor to die.

Now, if Trump could come out swinging against it, that might be the start of a fight that we could eventually win.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today
++++++++++++
Medicaid is a big problem, but so is Medicare. Medicare has *never* had adequate taxation to support it (as opposed to Social Security, which often has). It was a con job from day 0. One problem with both of them (and with the new VA policies under Trump) is that they buy from the hopelessly broken private market for medical services. Medicare and Medicaid expand at about the same rate as private spending, when controlling for participants.

The market is broken. The government is largely a victim of that, plus additional problems of their own making (the tendency of government programs toward waste and corruption and failure to ensure revenues for new programs).

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (I2dne)

58 The left has gone so far down the rabbit hole that they're making themselves forget all of the science that we've already known for a very long time.

It's less about a particular bit of knowledge - that can be learned or relearned - it's about an approach to information and its acquisition. If you aren't interested in facts at all, things get a bit dicey when you opine on things scientific.

Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (wW03z)

59 And yes, age bias in hiring IS a thing.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:08 AM
******

It sure as hell is.

Posted by: Diogenes at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (0tfLf)

60 Paging Monty, Monty to black phone of DOoooommm!

Posted by: A dude in MI at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (OOH1c)

61 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

Posted by: Janice at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (uLuPn)

62 The left has gone so far down the rabbit hole that they're making themselves forget all of the science that we've already known for a very long time.
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (Kpl3J)

Just like how every other claim they make is the exact opposite of reality, so is their "party of science" schtick. Postmodern Subjectivism flips everything upside down and pretends that's reality.

Posted by: Cato by Phone at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (J+mig)

63 I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions but if I'm ever at the point of pondering euthanasia I actually want the people who love me to know and get involved.
The ones who need to stay out of it are the unsouled bureaucrats in the national healthcare system.

Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at October 16, 2018 11:14 AM (nBr1j)

64 The market is broken. The government is largely a victim of that,"

"Victim"?

More like "cause"

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:14 AM (6qErC)

65 53 Hands off my Social Security. I'm almost old enough to start getting a check.

I don't want to work until I'm 80.
Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

=========

And this is why SS will never get fixed.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (9ZlHt)

66 Trump is so good at negotiating he managed to get a refund from a hooker!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM

******

Damn it Liz, you owe me a new keyboard!

Posted by: Diogenes at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (0tfLf)

67 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?
======

1. They are just like her.

2. Muh free shit!1!11!!!!

Posted by: bicentennialguy at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (vg8iE)

68 What's a cold cup of sick? Damn Brits and their weird euphemisms.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (/BXzQ)

69 No, the way we pay for SS is easy. We just need to bring in 20 - 30 million workers in their 20's, make them all legal and make sure they pay into the system for 40 years, while all our old people reap the benefits. C'mon, I sold Georgie boy on that plan a long time ago.

Posted by: Karl Rove at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (Kpl3J)

70 The market is broken. The government is largely a victim of that,"

"Victim"?

More like "cause"
Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:14 AM (6qErC)
++++++++++++
Totally fair. The medical market being broken is *entirely* the Government's fault. Those specific *programs* are victims of the other part.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (I2dne)

71 I have to say it would be really stupid to tackle Social Security spending first in order to get our budgets under control.

I'd like to see both Medicare and SS reformed, but why do conservatives insist on going after the most popular middle class entitlements that people have paid into their whole lives? How about food stamps, federal housing, welfare, ObamaPhones, ObamaCare etc first? You know, stuff the Free Shit Army gets.

And yea, Trump sucks on spending issues. oh well. So did every Republican President, he just doesn't pretend to be some fiscal hawk.

Posted by: Blago at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (QxeOQ)

72 61
Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

Posted by: Janice at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (uLuPn)
Massachusetts. The herpes sore of the northeast.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (jxbfJ)

73 61 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?
it's more than just being stupid....or are there really that many stupid people.......

Posted by: phoenixgirl at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (0O7c5)

74 the only real fix for our debt is to stop medicare, medicaid and social security programs. No one will do this, because repealing the gibs is political suicide. Maybe in 20 years when the boomers have died off they'll be a chance to.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (qJjzH)

75 Horseface? Trump fucked Sarah Jessica Parker?

Posted by: Stu Podaso - Deplorable Dreg at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (dZe7J)

76 I've paid into it at the point of a gun for the last 39 years.
Tell me I get zero. Make sure your will is up to date.
THAT is a red line that a lot of people will draw in the sand.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (0mP7b)

___________

It wasn't set up that way, you know that right?

Posted by: IP at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (cn3ZE)

77 We are nearing the day when either Booker or Harris will look at Warren and say YOU ARE NOT A POC.

And it will be awesome.

Posted by: HA at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (MAstk)

78 The alien conquerors will not be interested in sustaining the current entitlements system. Those who are too old, young, sick, or lazy to build the New Klendathu will simply have to go under.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (Bdeb0)

79 The biggest problems with SS are:
Disproportionately generous payouts to the low-income workers. It is welfare.
The money was never invested. By law Treasury securities were bought, paying for all those things govt. spends money on.

Posted by: William DeVane at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM (3HNOQ)

80 Reposting from the art thread:

Morning, Horde. Just wanted to check in, in case anyone's heard about
the flooding on the Llano River. I'm fine, and so are my parents--we're
well out of the flood plain--but things are scary. I think it's finally
stopped raining for the moment, or at least it's let up, but there's
been at least one bridge wash out, and there's more water coming down
from upriver.

(*waves to everybody who replied on the other thread*)

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (viuMu)

81 65 53 Hands off my Social Security. I'm almost old enough to start getting a check.

I don't want to work until I'm 80.
Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

=========

And this is why SS will never get fixed.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (9ZlHt)

Fixed?

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (/BXzQ)

82 The ones who need to stay out of it are the unsouled bureaucrats "

You mean the hardworking with your best interests at heart folks who made sure your toilet doesn't flush, your shower doesn't spray, your dishwasher and washing machine don't clean, and your gas can doesn't ... can?

Let's put 'em in charge of your health! What can go wrong?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (6qErC)

83 why do conservatives insist on going after the most popular middle class entitlements that people have paid into their whole lives?

Because that's where the money is.

Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (wW03z)

84 Whatever Republicans are paying Elizabeth Warren, they should double it.

And now a huge Mexican caravan is coming to the border? Talk about a gift for Republicans for midterms.

Posted by: Blago at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (QxeOQ)

85 Trump sees federal deficit soar in first full year

Wait, we're supposed to give a tinker's damn about the deficit now? After 8-years of "recovery" under the milk-chocolate messiah with approximately $1.2T of debt per year (on average) now we're suppose to care about the deficit?

Gee, must be a Republican in the White House.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (NYS7S)

86 >>61
Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her? Posted by: Janice at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (uLuPn)

Her supporters are members of the Free Shit Army, and she's the Indian Giver.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (Bdeb0)

87 Off old soap star sock.

Posted by: JAS at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (3HNOQ)

88 And now a huge Mexican caravan is coming to the border? Talk about a gift for Republicans for midterms.

Posted by: Blago at October 16, 2018 11:17 AM (QxeOQ)

If they have the spine to use it.

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (72PAC)

89 I don't want to work until I'm 80.
Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

=========

And this is why SS will never get fixed.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

You're damn right. That's what happens when you have stole from people for 40+ years.

They want to fix it, pick a date far enough in the future to not effect current workers and say, "from this date forward, no SS".

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (0mP7b)

90 72 61
Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

Posted by: Janice at October 16, 2018 11:13 AM (uLuPn)
Massachusetts. The herpes sore of the northeast.
Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (jxbfJ)

Does politics attract vile people or does it make people vile?

Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (nBr1j)

91 >>Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

A. Massachusetts

B. If you don't really listen to her, she seems like a smart professor and her appearance projects the hip-ish older lady Harvard intellectual (think of her appearance vs. Hillary's fat slob in crazy expensive suits).

C. Apparently the Bernie-esque take on stuff appeals to a lot of people, and she talks a good game for that particular audience. Dumb people.

That's my guess...

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (W+vEI)

92 why do conservatives insist on going after the most
popular middle class entitlements that people have paid into their whole
lives?

Posted by: Blago at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (QxeOQ)

Because SS and healthcare are, by far, the biggest parts of the budget. Cutting ObamaPhones and all the other small shit won't do anything.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (wYseH)

93 Social Security can only be dealt with after re-election. Do not give Dems a stick to beat you with.

Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (2LelM)

94 Government involvement in healthcare is one of the main reasons it's broken.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (oVJmc)

95 61 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

Forget about it Jake, it's Massachusetts.

Geoff Diehl is a good guy and I'd love to see him in the Senate someday. He's even run a pretty solid campaign. This year is not his year, however.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (NYS7S)

96 The one piece that pisses me off is Medicaid.

It's provably ineffective at helping people with medical issues, costs about a trillion dollars a year, and if anyone talks about cutting it back at all, they're labeled as monsters who want the poor to die.

Now, if Trump could come out swinging against it, that might be the start of a fight that we could eventually win.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (9ZlHt)

I don't know the exact number, but a large portion of Medicaid spending (remember, the Fed splits Medicaid costs with the states, it's not a full Federally funded program) is on nursing home care for the elderly. The average nursing home costs $8,000 a month and Medicaid covers the cost of care fully(it doesn't cover Rx, personal needs such as incontinence products, personal care products, etc. ) but that is a huge cost per person per month.

It's one of the reason's Medicaid is a sacred cow.

Posted by: Jen the original at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (Y/5oU)

97 I've paid into it at the point of a gun for the last 39 years.
Tell me I get zero. Make sure your will is up to date.
THAT is a red line that a lot of people will draw in the sand.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (0mP7b)

==================================
Well, either you eat the damage, or you steal from your grandchildren. What do you want? The money you paid into SS wasn't for you, it was for your parents who were stealing from you. When does the intergenerational theft stop?

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (qJjzH)

98 Warren's Indian name: "Stands With Affirmative Action"?

No, no, that's too easy, and not very funny. So is "Spreading Bull." "Dances With 23 and Me"? "Throws Bull Far Woman"?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (Fz8ov)

99 It wasn't set up that way, you know that right?
Posted by: IP

I don't give a fuck how it was set up. I care about how MY money was stolen from me. Since I was 16.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (0mP7b)

100 "How about food stamps, federal housing, welfare, ObamaPhones, ObamaCare etc first? You know, stuff the Free Shit Army gets"

Because of the math. Medicare, Social Security and now the debt service we have because of those programs is where the money goes.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (Mr80f)

101 why do conservatives insist on going after the most popular middle class entitlements that people have paid into their whole lives?

Because that's where the money is.
Posted by: pep

_______

Like it or not, Social Security and Medicare are really popular, even among Republicans.

Just saying, I'd like to start with the trillions in spending that's not so popular first since we have those pesky things called elections.

Posted by: Blago at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (QxeOQ)

102 Massachusetts. The herpes sore of the northeast.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (jxbfJ)

Yup. And for fvck's sake...they are Red Sox fans!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (wYseH)

103 Continued Social Security debacle? I blame the Muslims for this too. I am of the belief that SS privatization, at least partially, would have occurred if not for 9/11.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (/BXzQ)

104 What's a cold cup of sick?"

Hmm. Heard it as "a cup of cold sick"...

sick = vomit, in Britainistan

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (6qErC)

105 it's more than just being stupid....or are there really that many stupid people.......

Posted by: phoenixgirl at October 16, 2018 11:16 AM

And, power of, embrace the.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (ctuyM)

106 This is an amusing way to frame how bit the Mega Million jackpot is tonight - win and become richer than Taylor Swift.

The Horde does have tickets right?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (iwiQ1)

I have to remember to do that on the way home. The way I've been feeling lately, I want to win, buy a house like this -

https://tinyurl.com/ybky842d

Find a woman like this -

https://tinyurl.com/y9efj7cf

And tell the rest of the world to fuck off.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (kqsXK)

107 One problem with both of them (and with the new VA policies under Trump) is that they buy from the hopelessly broken private market for medical services. Medicare and Medicaid expand at about the same rate as private spending, when controlling for participants.

....................

You must have never seen the rates at which Medicare pays for those services..

I am on Medicare this past year for the first time.

I get bills form the doctor's office for thousands of dollars - colonoscopy a few months ago.. Medicare pays a couple hundred. And the docs and the hospitals have to accept that as payment in full.

Medicaid has even worse reimbursement rates.

Yeah.. something needs to be done about the deficit spending... and medicare/medicaid should be part of that.. but all the arm-chair analysts around here do not understand the complexities involved.. politically/medically/practically.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (438dO)

108 Government involvement in healthcare is one of the main reasons it's broken.
=========

Yep.

There is one sector of "healthcare" where costs are not spiraling out of control - cosmetic surgery.

You know why?

Because people pay for it out of pocket. The cost is controlled by market forces. There is a direct relationship between the provider and the payor.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (vg8iE)

109 >>I don't give a fuck how it was set up. I care about how MY money was stolen from me. Since I was 16. Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (0mP7b)

Elizabeth Warren's land was stolen from her. By the palefaces.
She feels your pain.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:21 AM (Bdeb0)

110 C. Apparently the Bernie-esque take on stuff appeals to a lot of people, and she talks a good game for that particular audience. Dumb people.

That's my guess...
Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (W+vEI)

Her biggest claim to fame was the Consumer Protection Board, which the courts took apart this year as unconstitutionally constructed. But her supporters don't want to hear that , they want the constitution taken apart instead.

Posted by: Jen the original at October 16, 2018 11:21 AM (Y/5oU)

111 I don't buy lottery tickets. I consider the lottery as a tax on stupid people.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (xfb67)

112 @99
I don't give a fuck how it was set up. I care about how MY money was stolen from me. Since I was 16.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (0mP7b)
==================================
congratulations, you got fucked. The proper answer is not to fuck other people.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (qJjzH)

113 Noticed the caterpillars are very woolly this year.
According to the Farmer's Almanac, that means...... Brewers win the Series!

Posted by: Roland THTG at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (QM5S2)

114 When does the intergenerational theft stop?
Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM

With the Millennials, man.

Posted by: The Boomers at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (ctuyM)

115 I hear a helicopter, which makes me wonder what's going on. In my experience helicopters don't come out for no particular reason.

Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (nBr1j)

116 Lost in the joys of winning day after day is the reality that the federal government is still hemorrhaging money...our money! Spending on healthcare is approaching 30% of the budget, Social Security is about 25% Defense is about 15%, and the rest of the oh-so-vital federal government pisses away about the same...15%. What is going to get nasty is the tab for interest on the debt, which with rising interest rates is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

--

I'll need to look the numbers up, but if I had to guess I'd wager 50% (probably more) of voters pay - not file, but pay - no taxes, and that same 50%+ receive a large part of their cash and non-cash income from the same government that they do nothing to support.

TL; DR = We're screwed.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (83Wfa)

117 Hands off my Social Security. I'm almost old enough to start getting a check.

I don't want to work until I'm 80.
Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

=========

And this is why SS will never get fixed.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (9ZlHt)

Fixed?
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp

Exactly.

'Fixing' means, moving goalposts. changing the game in favor of the house. Just as veterans were once promised free medical for them AND their families for life. Then they dropped the families. And then it became, sometimes only for service related ailments. We're on to 300 dying while languishing on fake waiting lists.

All to appease people who will never be appeased (FSA).

Posted by: Blue Hen at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (tqyrn)

118 There is complete reliance on the federal government for retirement any more.

MUST have Medicare and SS and their protection for a 401K/Roth etc.

The system is working EXACTLY as they want it to.

Posted by: Nick in Tallahassee at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (wGbBR)

119 >>Warren's Indian name: "Stands With Affirmative Action"?

"Shouts with Lies"?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (W+vEI)

120 I had to check. Trump really did call Stormy Daniels "Horseface."

Wow.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (NFEMn)

121 ==================================

congratulations, you got fucked. The proper answer is not to fuck other people.Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:22 AM (qJjzH)___________
Yep... pretty much.

Posted by: IP at October 16, 2018 11:23 AM (cn3ZE)

122 Watched a NatGeo "special" on how AGW is causing the GBR to bleach
white and we are all doomed. After just a little research, this is of
course complete bullshite, the bleaching is actually a natural occurring
phenomenon which takes place during protracted El-Nino periods. IOW
when weather happens.

Posted by: dananjcon at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (xqfqx)

123 Elizabeth Warren hates snow because it's white and on her land.

Posted by: Northernlurker lurkier than ever at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (nBr1j)

124 There is one sector of "healthcare" where costs are not spiraling out of control - cosmetic surgery.

Excellent point, assuming it's true (I don't doubt you, I just have no knowledge in this area).

Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (wW03z)

125 The cost is controlled by market forces. There is a direct relationship between the provider and the payor.

Posted by: bicentennialguy at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (vg8iE)

Bingo!

The magic of a free market would fix healthcare in America in about 10 years.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (wYseH)

126 "Results Challenge Existing Narratives Of Island Loss"

Sorry, but NOTHING challenges existing narratives and gets away with it!

Posted by: t-bird at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (Z1eux)

127 Medical care

Just like everything else in life, you have three choices on the service

Good
Fast
Cheap

You can only pick two, but we've been demanding that we violate that very basic principle for about 50 years (basically since Medicare was passed and certainly since Reagan signed EMTALA in 1986).

It's math. And math doesn't care about your feelings.

The math always wins in the end.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (NYS7S)

128 'Voice of Ex-Wife'

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (fA1SL)

129 100 "How about food stamps, federal housing, welfare, ObamaPhones, ObamaCare etc first? You know, stuff the Free Shit Army gets"

Because of the math. Medicare, Social Security and now the debt service we have because of those programs is where the money goes.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (Mr80f)

Fixing the stuff that gets abused without fixing the big stuff would just be putting lipstick on a pig. The system isn't slightly broken, it's fundamentally broken.

That said, since we can't get rid of these entitlements, as the political will simply doesn't exist, our approach needs to be sold in terms of "sustainable reform" and answer the question of how to provide similar servive without breaking the bank.

With regards to social security, I believe it was Chile that had the privatized system that vastly outperforms ours. We should copy it.

Posted by: Cato by Phone at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (J+mig)

130 Like it or not, Social Security and Medicare are really popular, even among Republicans.

Just saying, I'd like to start with the trillions in spending that's not so popular first since we have those pesky things called elections.
Posted by: Blago

How about we quit paying the UN and stop sending billions to all the countries that hate us?
Just for starters.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (0mP7b)

131 Yeah.. something needs to be done about the deficit spending... and medicare/medicaid should be part of that.. but all the arm-chair analysts around here do not understand the complexities involved.. politically/medically/practically.
Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:20 AM (438dO)
++++++++++
Medicaid/medicare reimbursement rates often aren't great, but private insurance also reimburses well under "price price" (which doesn't actually exist - one of the major problems). Overall spending on a per-capita basis within those programs is quite close to the overall market. The entire industry is broken and putting the country in the poor house. Price transparency would be a good place to start.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (I2dne)

132 Reform Tort Law and watch medical cost plunge.

Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (2LelM)

133 "but all the arm-chair analysts around here do not understand the complexities involved."

It's not all that complex. In ten years the deficits will be up to 2 Trillion a year. Something within the next couple decades will give and dollar will collapse. It's just the way it is.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (Mr80f)

134 It's one of the reason's Medicaid is a sacred cow.
Posted by: Jen the original at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM (Y/5oU)

To get that full coverage of Medicaid , the nursing care resident can't have any assets . So you either hide, transfer your money or pay until you are broke. People who worked hard to leave stuff to their kids get screwed.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (/BXzQ)

135 The deficit is only a problem for Republican presidents. For Democrat presidents, not so much.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (EZebt)

136 89
You're damn right. That's what happens when you have stole from people for 40+ years.

They want to fix it, pick a date far enough in the future to not effect current workers and say, "from this date forward, no SS".
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:18 AM (0mP7b)

===========

You paid taxes. You didn't pay into an account.

You bought a lie.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (9ZlHt)

137 Massachusetts. The herpes sore of the northeast.

Objection. Herpes sores go away.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 16, 2018 11:25 AM (kqsXK)

138 Oh man, Trump is on a tear this morning.

"Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees." @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!

Posted by: WisRich at October 16, 2018 11:25 AM (G0vdT)

139 Elizabeth Warren's land was stolen from her. By the palefaces.
She feels your pain.
Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:21 AM

The worst are the derivative effects. The Prairie Crabs were stolen when the land was stolen. With no Prairie Crabs, there can be no Prairie Crab Dip.

And thus, Grandmother's Prairie Crab Dip recipe was also stolen.

QED

Posted by: Duncanthrax at October 16, 2018 11:25 AM (ctuyM)

140 Elisabeth, we've had river flooding all summer. Now that there's snow on the ground, maybe the flooding will stop. Maybe.

Posted by: pookysgirl at October 16, 2018 11:25 AM (XKZwp)

141 A good visual on Warren's potential ancestor:

https://gab.ai/PNN/posts/38761556

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (W+vEI)

142 A group I work with chip in to buy lottery tickets when the jackpots get high. I don't want to be the last one working here if our numbers hit.

Posted by: Stu Podaso - Deplorable Dreg at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (dZe7J)

143 Because Democrats want a fighter, and she fights.

Isn't that racist, given her heritage?

Posted by: t-bird at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (Y9zp1)

144 I've never thought that I would get any benefits from it, and I think it's high time I stopped paying taxes for it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

I've paid into it at the point of a gun for the last 39 years.

Tell me I get zero. Make sure your will is up to date.

THAT is a red line that a lot of people will draw in the sand.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (0mP7b)

-------

I think it's high time for some honesty with the younger generations...

"We developed a stupid defined benefit pension program nearly a hundred years ago, and it never could've worked. It never did work. It was bankrupt the day we cut the first check, and then we piled Pelion on Ossa by repeatedly looting it for the General Fund. It's fucked. It's toast.

That said, your parents and grandparents were fleeced for their entire lives to pay for it, and they're getting paid out. You're getting fleeced for your entire life too, guys, but you're not going to see one thin dime. Sorry, but them's the brakes. Plan accordingly, and take comfort in the fact that your children won't be getting fleeced, because we're killing this program when the last boomer is buried."

It's nothing anyone wants to hear. It's nothing anyone wants to say. But it's reality, and it needs to be said.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (AzW6q)

145 Trump just called someone Horseface on Twitter. Don't know if he means Aviantay or Stormy.

Posted by: kallisto at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (4MRvZ)

146 There is one sector of "healthcare" where costs are not spiraling out of control - cosmetic surgery.

Excellent point, assuming it's true (I don't doubt you, I just have no knowledge in this area).
Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (wW03

LASIK eye surgery

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:26 AM (/BXzQ)

147 >> Like it or not, Social Security and Medicare are really popular, even among Republicans.

In Clinton's second term the Federal Governement annonced that nobody under the age of 35 should / could expect that Social Security will pay them one red fucking cent.

That was when I decided to never not work for myself.

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 11:27 AM (ax1SH)

148 Like many fairly conservative people I know, both my wife and I are members of large extended families with lots of elderly relatives who tend to live a very long time. As an individual, SS bites, but when looked at from an extended family viewpoint, we are raking it in. If I add up relatives of mine who are working and who are collecting, I would say we probably pay in about $20,000 a month in SS taxes and collect $50k to $60k a month in benefits. Like I said, we've got a lot of elderly relatives who collect.

And this leads to the real problem right now with reforming SS - I admit it's people like me. I will agree with anyone that intellectually it's headed for a bad end - but I'm sure not motivated to put any personal time or effort into changing it, and neither is anyone in my quite conservative family. The status quo suits us just fine, and by the time things go to hell most of us will be dead. That's sad, but it's true.

There'll never be more than about 10% or 20% of the country seriously motivated to actually change this, and that's not enough to push any changes through.

Btw, it's not completely hopeless. If you're self employed and you're clever with numbers, and set things up the right way, you can go years without paying any SS tax. During the times when I haven't had an official employer, I never have, and I did it legally.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:27 AM (Kpl3J)

149 I can predict that this thread is going to de-evolve into some insults and shouting. Catch you later!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 16, 2018 11:27 AM (AllCR)

150 You bought a lie.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Buying suggests options.

Didn't have an option.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:27 AM (0mP7b)

151 The plan and pattern and norm was ya had kids, who took care of you when you got old and feeble. Generally, ya need at least two or three to do that and make it work. We fucked up.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:28 AM (fA1SL)

152 >>Elizabeth Warren's land was stolen from her. By the palefaces.
She feels your pain.

Oh, so that's why she decided to make a lot of money flipping foreclosed homes while railing about evil banks and Wall Street?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:28 AM (W+vEI)

153 How about some humor?

https://preview.tinyurl.com/yd5xktea

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 16, 2018 11:28 AM (iwiQ1)

154 Canada is rich in natural resources that we could simply take, and is populated by humans who are inferior.

It is time for plunder-war.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (Bdeb0)

155 It's nothing anyone wants to hear. It's nothing anyone wants to say. But it's reality, and it needs to be said.
_______________

Said loudly, over and over.
"Face it, you screwed up, you trusted us. - Social Security Admin

Posted by: IP at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (cn3ZE)

156 LOl, Trump called Stormy Daniels horse face...

Posted by: It's me donna at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (O2RFr)

157 It's in the Lock Box!

Posted by: Al Gore at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (ax1SH)

158 154. Day of the Rake.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (fA1SL)

159 >>There is one sector of "healthcare" where costs are not spiraling out of control - cosmetic surgery.

Because it's not covered by health insurance, so the patient pays 100% of the bill (hence, they must price competitively)?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (W+vEI)

160 The status quo suits us just fine, and by the time things go to hell most of us will be dead . That's sad, but it's true.
This is how most politicians think, and CEOs.

Posted by: Roland THTG at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (lST4I)

161 Start transitioning the retirement age up a few years, as well.
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 11:04 AM (oVJmc)

===

This has already been done. I'm in my 50s and my full SS eligibility is age 67. Do you mean do more?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (EZebt)

162 I have prepared myself since I entered the work force that I would not be receiving Social Security. If I do, it will be just something extra . Lagniappe.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (/BXzQ)

163 132 Reform Tort Law and watch medical cost plunge.
Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (2LelM)

And abolish the present health insurance system. Make it act more like dental and vision plans, and force providers to list prices for service.

Laser eye surgery costs a fraction of what it once did, and dental implants are coming down in price. Why? Because vision and dental providers are actually competing with each other, instead of being run by a cartel that makes the process opaque and hides prices from the consumer.

Posted by: Cato by Phone at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (J+mig)

164 The magic of a free market would fix healthcare in America in about 10 years.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (wYseH)

Totally agree. It's the only solution.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Vote Red! at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (Z216Q)

165 150 You bought a lie.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison "

We may have bought a lie, but we sold it to you with interest.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (Kpl3J)

166 It is time for plunder-war.

We can chuckle about this, but honestly this is precisely what every other major collapsing empire in history did to prolong their lives for another century or two (sometimes less).

Don't think we have the stomach for it, though.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (NYS7S)

167 This has already been done. I'm in my 50s and my full SS eligibility is age 67. Do you mean do more?
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (EZebt

Take the reduced rate at 62.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (/BXzQ)

168 not tired of winning. maybe a little winded.

Posted by: Boulder terlit hobo at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (APm+L)

169 It's in the Lock Box!

Posted by: Al Gore at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (ax1SH)

I've got some rather bad news for you Al. Gird your chakras.

Posted by: Jerry Rivers at Al Capone's Lockbox at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (QLvwG)

170 I NEVER want Trump to stop tweeting. It's brilliant. It makes his base laugh and cheer and his enemies lose their shit and overreact and do stupid stuff.

Brilliant.

Posted by: Seems Legit at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (jUVms)

171 Now THIS is what "owning the libs" is all about:
https://tinyurl.com/y88n9yqg
Heh.

Posted by: Publius Redux at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (Fb9aZ)

172 Canada is rich in natural resources that we could simply take, and is populated by humans who are inferior.

Hold on, what about Justin Trud....never mind.

Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (wW03z)

173 114 When does the intergenerational theft stop?
Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:19 AM

---

When we're finished

Posted by: Planned Parenthood at October 16, 2018 11:31 AM (PPbDD)

174 >>Oh, so that's why she decided to make a lot of money flipping foreclosed homes while railing about evil banks and Wall Street? Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:28 AM (W+vEI)

The proceeds of her real estate speculation have been sent back to the rez. She is a wealth-giver to the People. The young sing songs honoring her. Yao.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (Bdeb0)

175 You must have never seen the rates at which Medicare pays for those services.. "

No insurer pays "list", and the kicker is the obligations under Medicare. There never was a serious plan to fully fund Medicrap, so by now the difference between what's due in expenditures vs. what's incoming is vast (IIRC, the 75 year figure for one part is something like 30 Trillion dollars...)

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (6qErC)

176 150 You bought a lie.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Buying suggests options.

Didn't have an option.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:27 AM (0mP7b)

============

"Paying into" was a lie.

You paid taxes to support current beneficiaries, not create a retirement account for yourself.

Do you "pay into" the roads?

Do you "pay into" the military?

Social Security is, and always has been, a tax and nothing more. The idea that you would get something back from it was a lie.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (9ZlHt)

177 You mean Justine Turd-Duh! right?

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (iwiQ1)

178 114 When does the intergenerational theft stop?

After the entire economy collapses.

It will then get paid back in reverse. With interest. And blood.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (NYS7S)

179 This has already been done. I'm in my 50s and my full SS eligibility is age 67. Do you mean do more?
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (EZebt

Take the reduced rate at 62.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp

The difference between 62 & 67 is about $1k a month.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (0mP7b)

180 I'll need to look the numbers up, but if I had to guess I'd wager 50% (probably more) of voters pay - not file, but pay - no taxes, and that same 50%+ receive a large part of their cash and non-cash income from the same government that they do nothing to support.

---

Where's the Tea Party when those in charge MIGHT listen?

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (PPbDD)

181 Maybe an under-65 optional tax-free buyout of everything you put in to this point? Maybe be able to move it directly into a Roth IRA?

Tell youngsters "nope, no more," wait for people that are on it to die off, and move welfare entirely to the states. I don't know how, but get the feds and federal dollars out of it and let California and Portland pay for all the goodies they want.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (83Wfa)

182 Here's a solution for Social Security:
1) Increase the age requirement to 85 [since it is the current life expectancy rate].
2) Anyone on SS, but younger than 85 can stay on it.
3)People within 5 to 10 years before they were to receive SS on the old requirement of 65 will get benefits when they reach that age.

It would be a gradually change, but I think it would make people happy than with any other ideas.

Posted by: Delaforce the Air Mechanic at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (AQ/cL)

183 Because it's not covered by health insurance, so the patient pays 100% of the bill (hence, they must price competitively)?
Posted by: Lizzy at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (W+vEI)
++++++++++
Bingo. No insurance *and* transparent pricing. This is key. Call a hospital and try to get a quote for a cardiac cath and see what happens.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (I2dne)

184 yeah, promising to bring the budget under control and "tighten everyone's belt" is a losing campaign issue. Obama did promise to cut deficits in half and he did ... after tripling them first. In the end, he doubled the debt, $10T added, "all on his lonesome" (to borrow the phrase Obama used in blasting Bush for his $4T)

Obama also had ZIRP a $4T in QE (not to mention some $21T that seems to be unaccounted for, separate from the known $20T debt, and not counting the $200T unfunded liabilities, promises made to keep us playing along)

The way to avoid the collapse from higher interest rates ... eliminate the IRS, fund the government with all QE ... hurray, free money. That has the potential to bring massive inflation in a strong economy, since our government has zero fiscal discipline ... but voters don't care.

This can't be addressed till the GlobalistDeepState is brought to justice, and Trump is re-elected in 2020. Hopefully the markets rebound and hold at least till after this election ... many corrections are due ... but since QE and ZIRP, we really are in a brave new fiscal world where trillion dollar coins are actually considered, and serious people speak of a "reset" ... whatever that means.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (Cus5s)

185 It's nothing anyone wants to hear. It's nothing anyone wants to say. But it's reality, and it needs to be said.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice

I'm not quite a boomer ( yet magically 29) and I'm somewhat willing to take a haircut. That willingness is highly correlated with how big a haircut federal retirees would also take.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (L6LPq)

186 181 Maybe an under-65 optional tax-free buyout of everything you put in to this point? Maybe be able to move it directly into a Roth IRA?

Tell youngsters "nope, no more," wait for people that are on it to die off, and move welfare entirely to the states. I don't know how, but get the feds and federal dollars out of it and let California and Portland pay for all the goodies they want.
Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:33 AM (83Wfa)

============

W. kinda sorta tried to do some of that.

He was called a heartless monster, the Senate wouldn't pass any legislation, and W. slinked back in defeat.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (9ZlHt)

187 The state of elder care in Red China is appalling precisely because they stopped having kids at their traditional rate. Ya got one kid looking after mother and father both, and often there's an old aunt or three in the mix, and sometimes even a grandparent. It's utterly unworkable.
We're going down that same road.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (fA1SL)

188 The deficit was bound to increase the first year, because a tax cut always creates a temporary lull in revenues until the increased economic activity catches up to it.

And that's really the only way out of this mess: an economy roaring along so well it can pay back our debt because the size and scope of the federal government is never going to get any smaller to lessen its cost.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (39g3+)

189 132 Reform Tort Law and watch medical cost plunge.
Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (2LelM)

Not really. You might nibble at the margins a bit but the systemic problems lie elsewhere. The health care market is an oligopsony, price signals between the end consumer and the seller have essentially been eliminated, and the government effectively sets pricing - commercial payers increasingly look to Medicare rates to set their own reimbursement levels.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (NWiLs)

190 Come and talk to me about the fiscal situation and deficits at the end of this year and Q1-2 next year.
We still need to cut federal spending, most especially with discretionary spending. We are seeing a large drop in many social programs- but that won't be enough.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (VpIIl)

191 Btw, it's not completely hopeless. If you're self employed and you're clever with numbers, and set things up the right way, you can go years without paying any SS tax. During the times when I haven't had an official employer, I never have, and I did it legally.
Posted by: Tom Servo

...............

But your base pay back will be smaller per month.

Unless you plan on declaring more SS wages later on as you get closer to retirement.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (438dO)

192 "Paying into" was a lie.

You paid taxes to support current beneficiaries, not create a retirement account for yourself.

Do you "pay into" the roads?

Do you "pay into" the military?

Social Security is, and always has been, a tax and nothing more. The idea that you would get something back from it was a lie.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

SS was taken without my consent.

Roads? Yes. Gas tax. Fed Tax.
Military? Yes. Federal Tax.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (0mP7b)

193 I have prepared myself since I entered the work force that I would not be receiving Social Security. If I do, it will be just something extra . Lagniappe.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:30 AM (/BXzQ)

---

Same here. I'm trying hard to make it so that my SS dollars, if any, can fund bass boats and stupid gun purchases. Or buy cars and college for my kids and grandkids.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (83Wfa)

194 >>The deficit was bound to increase the first year, because a tax cut always creates a temporary lull in revenues until the increased economic activity catches up to it.

This smells awful Mathy.

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (ax1SH)

195 C'mon, kick me just a bit further down the road.

Posted by: The SS Can at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (QLvwG)

196 The difference between 62 & 67 is about $1k a month.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:32 AM (0mP7b)

Take your 5 years of benefits and divide that by the monthly difference in rate and that's how long from 67 to break even. I'll take my money now thank you.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (/BXzQ)

197 192

SS was taken without my consent.

Roads? Yes. Gas tax. Fed Tax.
Military? Yes. Federal Tax.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (0mP7b)

============

Federal taxes are taken WITH your consent?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (9ZlHt)

198

SS was taken without my consent.

Roads? Yes. Gas tax. Fed Tax.
Military? Yes. Federal Tax.
Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (0mP7b)

===========

You can opt out of them? Those federal taxes?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (9ZlHt)

199 And this is why SS will never get fixed.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:15 AM (9ZlHt)

Fixed?
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp

---

How about new workers get to choose SS or no SS. If they opt out, their employer contributions still go into the system to fund those now retired. Their own contributions go into a 401K-ish plan.

how many would take that deal?

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (PPbDD)

200 The members of the Canadian prog-rock band 'Rush' must be sacrificed to expiate the sins of their cuckold nation.
"Today's Tom Sawyer mean mean stride" indeed, Canadians. Assume the position.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (Bdeb0)

201
To get that full coverage of Medicaid , the nursing care resident can't have any assets . So you either hide, transfer your money or pay until you are broke. People who worked hard to leave stuff to their kids get screwed.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (/BXzQ)

Why should I pay for someone else to leave stuff to their kids?
Seriously, that's not an argument regarding receiving Medicaid coverage for a nursing home resident. I do not agree at all with the plan that has been posited in some states in years past that children of the elderly who are in nursing homes should be legally responsible for paying for their parent's care. Rather, the individual who is in need of care should have to pay out of pocket until all their personal resources are exhausted and then a program can help pick up the cost.

Personal responsibility. Individualism.

In virtually all states, couples who have one spouse who needs nursing home care can split their cash and insurance assets, a vehicle, and the home can remain with the non ill spouse, and the then divided assets are to be used to pay for care. That leaves a significant cash amount , a home, car, and modest insurance policy and half of social security and pension to support non institutionalized spouse.

Not to mention estate planning and long term care insurance that is available to everyone.

Posted by: Jen the original at October 16, 2018 11:36 AM (Y/5oU)

202 199 How about new workers get to choose SS or no SS. If they opt out, their employer contributions still go into the system to fund those now retired. Their own contributions go into a 401K-ish plan.

how many would take that deal?

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (PPbDD)

==============

"Holy shit, the ads we'd come up with."
-The DNC

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:36 AM (9ZlHt)

203 >>But your base pay back will be smaller per month.

>>Unless you plan on declaring more SS wages later on as you get closer to retirement.

IIRC - you can walk in anytime before you are eligible to draw and pay in whatever you want.

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 11:36 AM (ax1SH)

204 Maybe an under-65 optional tax-free buyout of everything you put in to this point? Maybe be able to move it directly into a Roth IRA?

As long as they don't continue taking SS taxes out of my check every two weeks.

Maybe.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (0mP7b)

205 Canada is rich in natural resources that we could simply take, and is populated by humans who are inferior.

It is time for plunder-war.
Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (Bdeb0)

And Mexico!

Posted by: MAC SOG and nothing will happen at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (P4Pk9)

206 @148
The status quo suits us just fine, and by the time things go to hell most of us will be dead . That's sad, but it's true.
==================================
This is a legitimately disgusting way to think. You can see the problem. You know it's going to end in chaos, and the blood of your children. You refuse to do anything about it because you're comfortable.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (qJjzH)

207 Ah, nice.

Saw a live banhammer.

I can die happy now.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (9ZlHt)

208 W. kinda sorta tried to do some of that.

He was called a heartless monster, the Senate wouldn't pass any legislation, and W. slinked back in defeat.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:34 AM (9ZlHt)

No , it was still being pursued. Then 9/11 happened.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (/BXzQ)

209 when i win the lottery tonight, i'm hosting the biggest MoMe in history. you're all invited.

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (PPbDD)

210 So Trump's approval is on the rise and some GOP Senate candidates have seen their fortunes improve.

Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

I understand his anger at Mueller, Sessions and the entire Russian nonsense. But Stormy had her case thrown out of court. Trump won. Take the victory and try to help Republicans out in the next few weeks.

This does the opposite.

Posted by: WIGOPer at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (GFNw6)

211 Excellent point, assuming it's true"

There was a write up on certain procedures about a year ago, and the general take was that prices had dropped by around three percent over the past couple of years.

Chicago source, but I can't recall the exact one.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (6qErC)

212 208
No , it was still being pursued. Then 9/11 happened.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (/BXzQ)

===========

He tried to make SS optionally private in his second term.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (9ZlHt)

213 Take your 5 years of benefits and divide that by the monthly difference in rate and that's how long from 67 to break even. I'll take my money now thank you.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp

..............

I waited til I was 67.. since I am still working, it would have been stupid of me to take it earlier, because until 66 1/2 they won't give you your SS if you make more than xx dollars.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (438dO)

214 Privatizing Health Care: I have a close friend who travels to China regularly on business, he relates tales from his travels to me. China right now is a weird mixture of Statism and unfettered capitalism (the State is happy with the extra money that Capitalism generates as long as it never threatens the State's power) In some areas, China is now more capitalist than the US, and health care is one.

He developed pain in his arm and numbness in his fingers due to these long trips, so in Shanghai there were retail MRI units - you just go in to a storefront in a business area and there's a tech with an MRI machine; he does the test in about 30 minutes and tells you what he sees. In my friends case, he told him that he had a bone spur on one of the vertebra in his neck and that was pinching a nerve, and it would have to be fixed surgically - total cost, about $100 equivalent, total time a little over an hour.

So he decided well I can't really trust this completely, I'll check it out back in the states. Went to his doctor, got sent to a hospital with the big MRI machine, took most of a day to get it done and his insurance was billed around $8,000.00, and the verdict - he had a bone spur on one of the vertebra in his neck and that was pinching a nerve, and it would have to be fixed surgically .

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (Kpl3J)

215 (200) Can I watch?

Posted by: klaftern at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (RuIsu)

216 You can opt out of them? Those federal taxes?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

No. That's just it. I pay Federal taxes for ALL the shit the government does. SS is above and beyond.

The fact that SOME workers don't pay into it is the lie that it's a tax on everyone.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:39 AM (0mP7b)

217 The problem with the debt crisis, is even those under say 55 that think they have prepared themselves for own retirement, when the dollar collapses, what will you have? A bunch of papers or numbers on a computer that won't mean anything?

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:39 AM (Mr80f)

218 Hallo again, Horde.

Re Social Security, why the hell should I pay to support other people through a program I'm likely to never be able to benefit from?

If I'm paying to support someone else, I better be getting something in return. I'm not. It's gotta go.

Posted by: Brother Cavil at October 16, 2018 11:39 AM (AM1GF)

219 Look at the history of tax cuts. The deficit always rises in the following years. However when revenue from increased economic activity kicks in it shrinks. See the Reagan cuts of 81.

By the way, when Democrats Anointed One was doubling our countries debt, Democrats had zero to say. To boot, he bent us over and never did anything to cut taxes or spur growth. You know, 2% GDP was the new "normal". Now they're deficit hawks or something. FU

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:39 AM (VpIIl)

220 Excellent point, assuming it's true (I don't doubt you, I just have no knowledge in this area).
Posted by: pep at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (wW03z)
+++++++++
From my research using their trade association's data, some procedures are lower than inflation, other are a bit higher, but it's overall very close to inflation (e.g., flat in real terms). Lasik is the big exception - it crashed completely.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:39 AM (I2dne)

221 Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Anyone switching their vote from GOPe to "Fuck the 1st and 2nd Amendments, Due Process, and White People" Dems because of something Trump tweeted...

... weren't voting GOPe in the first place.

Posted by: DocJ at October 16, 2018 11:40 AM (NYS7S)

222 To get that full coverage of Medicaid , the nursing care resident can't have any assets . So you either hide, transfer your money or pay until you are broke. People who worked hard to leave stuff to their kids get screwed.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (/BXzQ)

---

Yeah, I've posted about it before, but it's comical to think that the neighbor who never saved sh*t and used debt to fund a lifestyle two or three stages above what he should've been living really does come out ahead if you both enter a nursing home at the same time.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:40 AM (83Wfa)

223 China is now more capitalist than the US, and health care is one."

Wait 'till they discover how to sell retirement. That'll show 'em.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:40 AM (6qErC)

224 So he decided well I can't really trust this completely, I'll check it out back in the states. Went to his doctor, got sent to a hospital with the big MRI machine, took most of a day to get it done and his insurance was billed around $8,000.00, and the verdict - he had a bone spur on one of the vertebra in his neck and that was pinching a nerve, and it would have to be fixed surgically .

Posted by: Tom Servo

Which second opinion would have cost him $100 in China, and if the other guy was full of shit, it would lose him customers.

Behold, the genius of the markets.

Posted by: Brother Cavil at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (AM1GF)

225 "2) Anyone on SS, but younger than 85 can stay on it.

3)People within 5 to 10 years before they were to receive SS on the
old requirement of 65 will get benefits whe ..." Posted by: Delaforce the Air Mechanic

yeah, or even raising it to 74 over 15 years, everything done incrementally, would probably solve it, IF we could stop the frauds and control the outbreak of SSI recipient the Obama years enabled.

Really hard to run a campaign on taking away Dem golden promises though ... voters are trained to love Santa Claus, more than be responsible citizens building a nation. Even the illegals come making demands, and MFM and even the Koch brothers agree ... We Owe Them. free lunch for the world.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (Cus5s)

226 This is a legitimately disgusting way to think. You can see the problem. You know it's going to end in chaos, and the blood of your children. You refuse to do anything about it because you're comfortable."

Talk to anyone in this country who's over the age of 65. The dishonest ones will say "oh no it's a good system, it can be fixed, it's not that bad." The honest ones all know that what I wrote is what's in their heads.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (Kpl3J)

227 How about new workers get to choose SS or no SS. If they opt out, their employer contributions still go into the system to fund those now retired. Their own contributions go into a 401K-ish plan.

how many would take that deal?

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (PPbDD)

Plenty would, and then would promptly spend the money instead of investing it and we'd end up in twenty or thirty years with stories about people nearing retirement with nothing to support themselves, and there'd be a huge push to create a new benefit system to support those people.

You could create mandatory 401(k)s, but that's just as bad, IMHO. Now you're pumping trillions into the stock market, and government has an incentive to keep the market rising even if it means artificially inflating it in the short-term with bad policies.

Posted by: Colorado Alex In Exile at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (wCmLp)

228 >>Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Preach it.

He keeps this up and his Middle Class White Women Voters won't stick around furlong.

Posted by: Sarah Jessica Parker at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (ax1SH)

229 Invest in land that has channelized avenues of approach with good fields of fire, ammo, canned goods and gold.

Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (2LelM)

230 154 Canada is rich in natural resources that we could simply take, and is populated by humans who are inferior.

It is time for plunder-war.
Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (Bdeb0)

---

we've invaded twice. lost twice. When will you learn the lessons of history? Once more and we might piss them off, and then they're down here with their hockey sticks and weird bacon.

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (PPbDD)

231 89 I don't want to work until I'm 80.
Posted by: Pearl at October 16, 2018 11:12 AM (uLuPn)

=========

And this is why SS will never get fixed.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison,

You're damn right. That's what happens when you have stole from people for 40+ years.

They want to fix it, pick a date far enough in the future to not effect current workers and say, "from this date forward, no SS".

That won't work. Because the money you are putting into the system *right now* is basically paying for someone elses Social Security at best Since we have to fund SS with Debt, you can't just turn the spigot off. There is no money for you. Or Pearl. Or me. Not really.

So, what a political class with Balls would do, would be pick an age. And this should have happened when I was in my twenties, not my thirties. But whatever. Lets say its 1981. I was born then. No I'm not 29, not really.

Anyone born before 1981, will retain a reduced amount of social security at this rate, Starting at a later date, on a progressive scale up to current check getters.

Anyone currently getting a check will keep getting that check at its current rate til they are dead.

Anyone born in 1981, or later, will get no SS benefits. You will *pay* SS until the last SS check holder is dead, but that is it.

And yes, that group is going to get screwed. But I'm going to get screwed anyway and have been saving as if SS will not be there. So yeah, thats my basic plan. And it could work.

But it will never, ever happen. For the reasons noted above. We won't ever get a majority willing to suffer for the benefit of all unless forced to.

Posted by: FrozenTech at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (IXw8E)

232 Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

I don't think those suburban women would be concerned about that whore. YMMV

Posted by: MAC SOG and nothing will happen at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (P4Pk9)

233 So Trump's approval is on the rise and some GOP Senate candidates have seen their fortunes improve.

Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

I understand his anger at Mueller, Sessions and the entire Russian nonsense. But Stormy had her case thrown out of court. Trump won. Take the victory and try to help Republicans out in the next few weeks.

This does the opposite.

Posted by: WIGOPer at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (GFNw6)

If your willingness to vote for a GOP candidate is predicated solely on Trump's language, then frankly you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (kqsXK)

234 his insurance was billed around $8,000.00"

Wonder what the hospital actually collected?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (6qErC)

235 IIRC - you can walk in anytime before you are eligible to draw and pay in whatever you want.
Posted by: garrett
...........

no.. you have to have a minimum number of quarters where you paid in.

And then, the payout is based on how MUCH you put in.

My wife was mostly a stay at home Mom most of her adult life.. she worked only when we were first married.

She was short by one quarter.. A friend of ours with his own business hired her for 6 months so she could get in the required number of quarters.. but the payout was still ridiculously low.. about $400 a month.

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (438dO)

236
Not really. You might nibble at the margins a bit but the systemic
problems lie elsewhere. The health care market is an oligopsony, price
signals between the end consumer and the seller have essentially been
eliminated, and the government effectively sets pricing - commercial
payers increasingly look to Medicare rates to set their own
reimbursement levels.

Government also controls competition on a lot of things, both through the Tort process and through regulation (like the FDA).

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (oVJmc)

237 Social Security and Medicare will begin to fail as intergenerational transfers of capital because Generation X is too small and too battered by This Great Economy to continue funding it. It's demographically doomed. Gen X is undersized (overaborted?), and the influx of illegals caused by St Ronnie's amnesty isn't working out as planned.

Working between Baby Boomers who never want to retire and Millennials who don't want to listen is an endless source of amusement for me. Still I'd hire someone in their 40s, 50s, 60s any time and any day over some recent Klown State University grad.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at October 16, 2018 11:43 AM (hqZPQ)

238 209 when i win the lottery tonight, i'm hosting the biggest MoMe in history. you're all invited.

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (PPbDD)

If I win, I'm buying an island from some poor cash-strappes nation, with full rights of sovereignty, and creating Hordistan.

Why trust someone else to secure your freedom when you can do it yourself?

Contests will be held for the rudest, crudest Moron, who will win a UN ambassadorship.

Posted by: Cato by Phone at October 16, 2018 11:43 AM (J+mig)

239 As long as they don't continue taking SS taxes out of my check every two weeks.

Maybe.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (0mP7b)

---

Yeah, I'm thinking if you accept the buyout you're done with the tax and you get what you paid in - and any interest after you invest it - tax free.

Anyone who stays in keeps paying, and maybe at an increased rate just to encourage people to leave.

But the whole thing would be dead after all the recipients are. No new members and all that.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:43 AM (83Wfa)

240 233
If your willingness to vote for a GOP candidate is predicated solely on Trump's language, then frankly you shouldn't be allowed to vote.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 16, 2018 11:42 AM (kqsXK)

==========

I don't know...there are people who vote for worse reasons with even less information.

If we're going to ban people from voting for stupid reasons,...

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:43 AM (9ZlHt)

241 @226
Talk to anyone in this country who's over the age of 65. The dishonest ones will say "oh no it's a good system, it can be fixed, it's not that bad." The honest ones all know that what I wrote is what's in their heads.
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (Kpl3J)
==================================
that a lot of people think this way makes it worse, not better. You have the opportunity to solve the problem and stop stealing from your children. You willingly choose not to.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (qJjzH)

242 Posted by: Jen the original at October 16, 2018 11:36 AM (Y/5oU)

I'm saying that the present system screws the middle class in favor of the lower class that never took responsibility. I don't want you to pay for any of mine or my mothers care. And I don't want to pay for anyone else's either. I'm pointing out that the middle class always suffers more than the lower or upper class based on governmental policies.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (/BXzQ)

243 Still I'd hire someone in their 40s, 50s, 60s any time and any day over some recent Klown State University grad. "

Hey, we've got a solution for you...

/Merkel,Jeb!,and more

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (6qErC)

244
So Trump's approval is on the rise and some GOP Senate candidates have seen their fortunes improve.
Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Yes because suburban women don't have any problem with their husbands or boyfriends spending time watching porn or going to strip clubs.

Posted by: Flawless Male Logic at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (TAmPV)

245 Re Social Security, why the hell should I pay to support other people through a program I'm likely to never be able to benefit from?

If I'm paying to support someone else, I better be getting something in return. I'm not. It's gotta go.

------------

And so if you are in Gen X you see the writing on the wall. After a lifetime of paying SS tax, the benefits will be cut just as you are to receive them. And we don't have the voting power to sustain them like the Boomers do.

Posted by: SH at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (sX1BW)

246 Posted by: WIGOPer at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (GFNw6)

Hey, Charlie! Where did you disappear to on the Morning Report? I asked such easy questions, but you didn't respond. I am disappoint.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (lwiT4)

247 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

-
Because they're crooks too. Back during Monicagate, I naively thought that people would eventually realize that Bill was lying to them instead of for them. Of course, that never
happened and has never happened to this day. (Ignore the story in the Morning Report about the left finally dumping Hillz; she'll be leader of the wolf pack again in no time). People love their free government money.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (+y/Ru)

248 Sloppy Daniels is a porn actor who takes it up the butt for money. On film.

Yeah, I can see "suburban women" "identifying" with her.

/sarcasm.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (VpIIl)

249 Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Those women aren't using the Twitter pipe. The ones that will be affected are horsefaced elitist bitches.

Posted by: Roy at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (Rr52g)

250 242. In fairness, that's what always happen. Ya got yer Inner Party, yer Outer Party, and the Proles.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (fA1SL)

251 When will people learn that at this point we can never pay down the debt?

Do the math. (I'm not going to bother) It's a huge number of years to pay what we owe even if we never spend another dime on anything else.

I'll do the easy one. We take in about 2 trillion in taxes.

If we stopped spending on anything (which of course we can't do) we would still take 10 years or more (due to debt service).

This is the trap that credit card debt brings. You can't pay it down fast enough unless you have way more money than you owe as free and clear to use for the debt service and principal. It's what keeps loan sharks in business (and why they don't break your limbs they just take over your assets)

We know we can't stop paying for other stuff so let's be reasonable (hah) and say we'll pay only 500 billion a year on the debt.

That would mean without interest it would take 40 years to pay down the debt and those years would be the epitome of stark. No payments for anybody and barely to keep the government and the military running.

Now we KNOW this would never pass let alone do any good.

So let's stop with this fantasy that somehow we can pay down the debt if we just try real hard. But if your version of hard is any less than the examples I've given, it's never going to happen. Stop pretending it's possible.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (sgZqZ)

252 I doubt suburban women voters give two shits about Spermy Daniels.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lonely Gloat-herd at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (xPJvm)

253 Contests will be held for the rudest, crudest Moron, who will win a UN ambassadorship."

Go "F" yourself.

/whatdoIwin?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (6qErC)

254 So Trump's approval is on the rise and some GOP Senate candidates have seen their fortunes improve.

Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

------

What did Sarah Jessica Parker do?

Posted by: josephistan at October 16, 2018 11:46 AM (7HtZB)

255 247 Elizabeth Warren is ahead in the polls. Why do people vote for liars like her?

-
Because they're crooks too. Back during Monicagate, I naively thought that people would eventually realize that Bill was lying to them instead of for them. Of course, that never
happened and has never happened to this day. (Ignore the story in the Morning Report about the left finally dumping Hillz; she'll be leader of the wolf pack again in no time). People love their free government money.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (+y/Ru)

=============

Because they're Democrats and generally vote for Democrats.

Just like Republicans generally vote for Republicans, even if we consider them RINO shits. Better a bad Republican than a Democrat.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:46 AM (9ZlHt)

256 I may be involuntarily taxed for the roads, but I get to use them. SS is a wealth transfer from me to strangers for retirement purposes. Meanwhile, I'll be working till I literally can't anymore and the ponzu scheme will have gone belly up long before then. If you can't figure out why SS especially pisses people off, you're not trying.

Posted by: bear with assymetrical balls at October 16, 2018 11:46 AM (9KUj4)

257 Maybe world governments can go to Year Zero on debts. Anyone who demands payment or complains get turned into a lampshade.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at October 16, 2018 11:46 AM (hqZPQ)

258 I saw the Horseface tweet, and chuckled. Trump. God love him.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:47 AM (lwiT4)

259 When will people learn that at this point we can never pay down the debt?"

Here's a trillion dollar coin!

And some yummy paste!

/JoeyB

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:47 AM (6qErC)

260 Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

-
I'll say. The correct term is "donkeyface".

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 11:47 AM (+y/Ru)

261 My solution:

-Go through every line item of government spending. If a true believer liberal ever supported it, it gets the ax. This assumes true believer liberals hate the military. (Though it would get rid of all the stupid gender crap and some bureaucratic nonsense.)

-Privatize Healthcare.

-Tell anyone we're massively in debt with that the NSA has all your secrets. We'll burn them forever for a debt cancellation.

I'm semi-serious.

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (72PAC)

262 Re Social Security, why the hell should I pay to support other people through a program I'm likely to never be able to benefit from? "

In very literal terms, because the Revenue Police will git ya if you don't. That's why taxes are always given the force of law, because most people would never pay them without the Boot of the Law threatening to stomp them if they don't.

Sooner or later, All Government comes down to Force.

See the Repression inherent in the System! See the Repression inherent in the System!

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (Kpl3J)

263 What did Sarah Jessica Parker do?"

Stomp twice for "yes"?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (6qErC)

264 Drive by comment/bleg: anyone looking for a tax write-off? The wife is looking to buy some Kindle Fire tablets to use in the classroom:
https://tinyurl.com/yc57xydl

Thanks, and later roonz and roonettez!

Posted by: GGE of the Moron Horde, NC Chapter at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (vbvxt)

265 This does the opposite.
Posted by: WIGOPer at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (GFNw6)

--------

I love it.

Posted by: Seems Legit at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (jUVms)

266 The simple fix to Social Security, and in fact - ALL unfunded Federal Liabilities?

We get Mexico to pay for it!

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (ax1SH)

267 So Trump's approval is on the rise and some GOP Senate candidates have seen their fortunes improve.

Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

I understand his anger at Mueller, Sessions and the entire Russian nonsense. But Stormy had her case thrown out of court. Trump won. Take the victory and try to help Republicans out in the next few weeks.

This does the opposite.
Posted by: WIGOPer

Wrong.

Dems touted this gag. Trump won....again. Midterms are about the administration in office. And he is running the table.

Meanwhile, dem stars are convening witches and earning endorsements from the communist party.

Posted by: Blue Hen at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (tqyrn)

268
Contests will be held for the rudest, crudest Moron, who will win a UN ambassadorship."

Go "F" yourself.
/whatdoIwin?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (6qErC)

lol. Hold my beer.

Posted by: Flawless Male Logic at October 16, 2018 11:48 AM (TAmPV)

269 Here's what a collapsed state pension looks like.

https://youtu.be/tpzQMex6otE

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (fA1SL)

270 You're damn right. That's what happens when you have stole from people for 40+ years.

They want to fix it, pick a date far enough in the future to not effect current workers and say, "from this date forward, no SS".

It will self destruct long before then.

I am 50 and I am planning as if SS does not exist because I am fairly certain it won't.

Posted by: human at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (0CeRG)

271 I was going to vote for Scott Walker for governor. But then Trump said Horseface. Now I will vote for Evers, the teachers union shill. Thanks a lot Trump.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (lwiT4)

272 Trump is now Stormy Daniels pimp.

She's out on the street bringing money back to him.

All he needs now is a fur trimmed coat, a zebra brimmed hat and a gold tooth.

Which btw is fine with me.

Trump's pimp hand is strong.

Avenatti's just got his stable plundered.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (sgZqZ)

273 256 I may be involuntarily taxed for the roads, but I get to use them. SS is a wealth transfer from me to strangers for retirement purposes. Meanwhile, I'll be working till I literally can't anymore and the ponzu scheme will have gone belly up long before then. If you can't figure out why SS especially pisses people off, you're not trying.
Posted by: bear with assymetrical balls at October 16, 2018 11:46 AM (9KUj4)

==============

Why it pisses people off is one thing.

The idea that people are owed it, is what I object to.

It's obviously been a Ponzi scheme for decades, and people getting mad because they were unlucky enough to get in too late that the idea of taking away their ability to participate in it anymore is a crime is what gets me.

Sorry. I'm paying into it too. I've been paying into it for almost 20 years, and I've been okay with the idea of not getting it since I started. Because that's the reality.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (9ZlHt)

274 Take your 5 years of benefits and divide that by the monthly difference in rate and that's how long from 67 to break even. I'll take my money now thank you.
Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (/BXzQ)

--

i think that there's still the trick of take the money @62, invest it for 5 years. After that, if you return it, you can then get the age 67 benefit.

And keep the returns gained on the money money

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (PPbDD)

275 Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't suburban women with children, or in the working world identify with a porn actress, MS13, higher taxes, Guilty When Accused and the general lawlessness that Demoncrats want to foist upon their children.

C'mon it's FOR the children, pikers.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (VpIIl)

276 News outlets were losing their shit over great barrier reef coral dying a few months ago. Yet here are islands where the coral is flourishing. It's almost as if these systems are complex and can't be reduced to people in white western nations driving cars and using air conditioners.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (/qEW2)

277 258 I saw the Horseface tweet, and chuckled. Trump. God love him.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:47 AM (lwiT4)

--------

This is what I meant earlier. Fans love it. We don't care if he calls a hooker "horseface". And his enemies lose their minds and do stupid stuff that inevitably backfires.

Posted by: Seems Legit at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (jUVms)

278 Problem with allowing people to choose to privatize their SS accounts, is that it will just allow DEMS to demagogue the issue later and promise even more people votes for a handout.

People will be let back into the system, there are too many votes to not allow them in.

Posted by: Nick in Tallahassee at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (wGbBR)

279 But...in the long run, without comprehensive overhauls, we are screwed.
You're welcome.

Posted by: AARP at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (u9OP6)

280 Saw a live banhammer.

I can die happy now.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (9ZlHt)

------

Who got the hammer? I must have missed this...

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (AzW6q)

281 Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Because suburban women are compelled to defend the honor of a porn star.

Weapons grade stupid.

Posted by: Blue Hen at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (tqyrn)

282 Where did you disappear to on the Morning Report?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:44 AM (lwiT4)

He's a troll using a proxy.

[but I'll bet you knew that...]

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (wYseH)

283 SS needs to be trimmed.

I was told as a young lad in 1979 when I started working at 16, that I wouldn't collect SS. I have not saved as well as I should have, and that's MY fault.

People forget, SS was NOT there to allow you to continue your life as you were upon retirement. It was there so someone would NOT live in abject poverty. However, the Dems made it the holy grail.

Reduce some benefits, ad a year to retirement and allow a partial privatization (1.5 - 3%) for those who choose. And obviously, cut the fraud where possible and imprison those people as a warning to those who would commit fraud.

It's not that hard . Just takes some guts.

Posted by: Steve_in_SoCal at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (q1VoB)

284 >>All he needs now is a fur trimmed coat, a zebra brimmed hat and a gold tooth.

He needs a custom Continental, and an Eldorado too.

Posted by: Roy at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (Rr52g)

285 He keeps this up and his Middle Class White Women Voters won't stick around furlong.
Posted by: Sarah Jessica Parker

Doo dah! Doo dah!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (+y/Ru)

286 IMPORTANT BEG:

For everyone at the HQ who has a Twitter account, go to the Papa John's Pizza Twitter account and retweet this, asking them to comment on it and what they're doing to discover whether the asshole is genuinely an employee, and about getting the Twitter account permanently suspended.

https://twitter.com/DJCPI/status/
1052164921197252608

The asshole is claiming that he works at Papa John's (as a 'manager'?) and he and the staff spit on the orders of anyone wearing Trump items.

Thanks.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (Evws/)

287 Trump's pimp hand is strong.

Avenatti's just got his stable plundered.
Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:49 AM (sgZqZ)

-----
I lol'd

Posted by: Seems Legit at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (jUVms)

288 "China is now more capitalist than the US, and health care is one."

communism and capitalism are not necessarily opposites, not mutually exclusive. China might decide Christians must only read a commie revised Bible, might leave the elderly to die, not protect workers/slaves ... but maybe they allow "free market" in health care more than we do, in some cases.

But their people still have to breathe nasty coal smoke air, and various totalitarian controls. They manage markets in other ways, for the benefit of the state.

USA allows some free choice, but massive manipulation especially in health care, where no one walks in to a hospital and buys off a menu ... they show up costs are never discussed. Mistakes are not mistakes, they are $3M lawsuit jackpots.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (Cus5s)

289 "But the federal government doesn't have that option, and he needs to start swinging that budget-cutting axe a lot more forcefully."

President Trump doesn't have a budget cutting axe. No President does. Congress writes budgets, and by Supreme Court decision, the President must spend the money they appropriate on the things they appropriate it for.

Posted by: SDN at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (K9d/B)

290 So let's stop with this fantasy that somehow we can pay down the debt if we just try real hard. But if your version of hard is any less than the examples I've given, it's never going to happen. Stop pretending it's possible.
Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:45 AM (sgZqZ)
+++++++++
It's dishonest but we actually don't have to - not exactly. If we completely stop deficit spending, then the debt will actually get retired over time (probably a couple of decades, but I am not going to do the math right now) because we maintain the civilization-scale theft called inflation. Inflating away your debt results in outright collapse if you try to do it quickly, but it has a retirement effect if you do it slowly. Even if the debt never goes away (you decide not to pay off a single bond and keep rolling it over forever), it does eventually stop mattering because the base has been eroded and receipts have surged in absolute terms. It has been stolen from savers and producers, of course - as always.

A household never has this privilege, but a national government that controls its currency does. But to try to exploit that opportunity, you still have to stop borrowing new money and if interest rates go up you have to cut to avoid running into deficit because of interest on the debt.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (I2dne)

291
>>Nothing like an idiotic "horseface" tweet to lose even more suburban women.

Preach it.

He keeps this up and his Middle Class White Women Voters won't stick around furlong.

Posted by: Sarah Jessica Parker at October 16, 2018 11:41 AM (ax1SH)
*Heh..i see what you did there.

Posted by: dananjcon at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (xqfqx)

292 Maybe world governments can go to Year Zero on debts. Anyone who demands payment or complains get turned into a lampshade.
Posted by: Big Fat Meanie

I've a hunch this is exactly what will eventually happen. Probably not until after WWIII (which, I suspect, is coming) but it will happen, out of necessity.

There will be economic hell to pay for a while afterwards, but it will happen. Because the alternatives will be unacceptable.

Posted by: Brother Cavil at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (AM1GF)

293 I accepted long ago that I would be paying SS into a fund that I would never get to collect. I'm OK with that (kinda) because someone has to be the one to suffer and at least my grandmother and maybe my parents won't starve in their old age and my nieces and nephew and any hypothetical children of mine won't have to deal with the problem. My grandparents' generation had to deal with the Second World War, so as far as generational burdens it could be a lot worse.

What I don't like is being called an entitled, spoiled millennial by folks who are depending on my money for their retirement, particularly when I followed all their advice for getting a good job and have ended up doing manual labor with a Master's degree. I'm not going to get social security and I can't save for retirement, so I'm pretty screwed through no fault of my own. Y'all don't have to add insult to injury.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (bZ7mE)

294 "So let's stop with this fantasy that somehow we can pay down the debt if we just try real hard"

That's what I'm saying. Play around the edges of Medicare and SS all daylong, it doesn't matter anymore. The day is coming when the whole thing comes crashing down. And it won't matter how much you have tucked away or how well you planned, when the dollar collapses everyone will be screwed.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (Mr80f)

295 Saw a live banhammer.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:37 AM (9ZlHt)

--

Testing

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 11:52 AM (83Wfa)

296 He's a troll using a proxy.

[but I'll bet you knew that...]

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:50 AM (wYseH)

Yeah I know. But when he said, ask me a question about Brookfield, I thought I had the hook set.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:52 AM (lwiT4)

297 I saw Horseface open for Big Country in 95 at the Palace

Posted by: A dude in MI at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (OOH1c)

298 Reform Tort Law and watch medical cost plunge.

Posted by: Puddin Head at October 16, 2018 11:24 AM (2LelM)

I agree, but where is the greatest concentration of lawyers?

Posted by: BignJames at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (0+nbW)

299 I waited til I was 67.. since I am still working, it would have been stupid of me to take it earlier, because until 66 1/2 they won't give you your SS if you make more than xx dollars.
Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 11:38 AM (438dO)

Yes of course it makes sense to wait if you are still working. I plan to stop working for the man as soon as I am able to.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (/BXzQ)

300 You guys who keep saying that SS is and always has been just another tax are missing a big something. As it was originally developed you could not collect a nickle of SS unless you paid into it for a certain number of quarters. My mother never collected a dime in SS because they said she did not work and pay into it enough quarters. LBJ changed all that in the 60s when he owned all three levels of government. It became just another welfare program when you could collect on it without working a day in your life.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (mpXpK)

301 What I don't like is being called an entitled,
spoiled millennial by folks who are depending on my money for their
retirement, particularly when I followed all their advice for getting a
good job and have ended up doing manual labor with a Master's degree.
I'm not going to get social security and I can't save for retirement, so
I'm pretty screwed through no fault of my own. Y'all don't have to add
insult to injury.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM (bZ7mE)

Wish you luck. But as my dad said, 9 of 10 people are at where they're at by their own accord.

What's the master's degree in?

Posted by: Steve_in_SoCal at October 16, 2018 11:54 AM (q1VoB)

302 300 You guys who keep saying that SS is and always has been just another tax are missing a big something. As it was originally developed you could not collect a nickle of SS unless you paid into it for a certain number of quarters. My mother never collected a dime in SS because they said she did not work and pay into it enough quarters. LBJ changed all that in the 60s when he owned all three levels of government. It became just another welfare program when you could collect on it without working a day in your life.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (mpXpK)

===========

So, we're not addressing it as it was 60 years ago? But as it has been for 60 years?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 11:54 AM (9ZlHt)

303 that a lot of people think this way makes it worse, not better. You have the opportunity to solve the problem and stop stealing from your children. You willingly choose not to. "

Actually, since large families tend to be cohesive, my children and grandchildren are, through inheritance and other family benefits, going to do quite well because of the money we've been able to retain. Especially when you consider the future value of certain real property investments that were able to be made because of the extra cash on hand.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 16, 2018 11:55 AM (Kpl3J)

304 If I don't get my Social Security I am off to Congress, and I'm going to start pulling shit off the walls and tables like it's a rummage sale. Then I'm going to sell that stuff on eBay. Yep, that's my retirement plan.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:55 AM (VpIIl)

305 How about new workers get to choose SS or no SS. If they opt out, their employer contributions still go into the system to fund those now retired. Their own contributions go into a 401K-ish plan.

how many would take that deal?

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at October 16, 2018 11:35 AM (PPbDD)

===

I was able to do that when I left civil service. They let me take all my money out of the system, and I put it into my IRA. I figured it was a safer bet.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 11:55 AM (EZebt)

306 they are Red Sox fans!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

Ah yes. The Red Sox play again tonight. Thanks for losing the ALE Division for the third year in a row, Yankees fans!

Posted by: dd at October 16, 2018 11:55 AM (Eg7tS)

307 299
I waited til I was 67.. since I am still working, it would have been
stupid of me to take it earlier, because until 66 1/2 they won't give
you your SS if you make more than xx dollars.

I debunked that last week. They don't stop your SS because you make xx amount of dollars. They simply tax the shit out of it.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (mpXpK)

308 Heh..i see what you did there."

Neigh.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (6qErC)

309
The idea that people are owed it, is what I object to.
=====

Watch commercials -- most medical or pharmaceutical commercials use the words 'benefits you are entitled'. Scary stuff.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (MIKMs)

310 Oversight.gov
@OversightGov
New OIG report about DOJ: Investigative Summary: Findings of Misconduct by an FBI Official for Accepting Gifts From Members of the Media and for Lack of Candor

-
I'm shocked! Shocked!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (+y/Ru)

311 154
Canada is rich in natural resources that we could simply take, and is populated by humans who are inferior.

It is time for plunder-war.

Posted by: Zod at October 16, 2018 11:29 AM (Bdeb0)

***
Looks at history of War of 1812 - looks wistfully at Map of Canada, reads about New York Militia's refusal to cross border to fight at the battle of Queenston Heights. Looks back at map wistfully. sighs.

Posted by: Publius Redux at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (Fb9aZ)

312 PDT's Twitter stream is on fire today. LOL. Wonder if there are any rallies this week. If so, they should be mighty entertaining.

Posted by: Tuna at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (Phln5)

313 Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (lwiT4)

314 Looks back at map wistfully. sighs.
Posted by: Publius Redux at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (Fb9aZ)
++++++++++
Dust off War Plan Red?

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (I2dne)

315 going to do quite well because of the money we've been able to retain."

I'll take care of that!

/Lieawatha

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (6qErC)

316 Thing is: what would you do with all the people who are forced to retire, can't work any job anymore, disabled with no lawsuit to pay for the medical bills.

Shoot all the old people? That'll make for a real good goal for everyone to know that when they're too old to work they're doing to be shot. So guess what will happen so society when that breaks down? Who will obey the laws if they're going to die at 60?

Now you'll say: "well they should have saved their money" and I'll ask you: how much have you saved? What about those who don't make enough to save any? What about those who have some catastrophe wipe them out financially? (and it happens more than you think or know because we have all these cushions in effect right now)

Please answer seriously. I'd like to know what you all would do with all the old people and the crippled. There's like 14% of the total population over 65.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (sgZqZ)

317 Shoot all the old people?"

Carousel.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 11:58 AM (6qErC)

318 Thanks for losing the ALE Division for the third year in a row, Yankees fans!

Posted by: dd at October 16, 2018 11:55 AM (Eg7tS)

2016...swept.
2017...lost 3-1
2018?

All with a monstrous payroll.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:58 AM (wYseH)

319 Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.
Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (lwiT4)
++++++++++
I would ask her to read you the make and model of the device, and then do some googling and printing before you leave so you have something to reference. If the passwords are all missing, doing a "factory reset" and then setting it up from scratch is probably needed.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 11:58 AM (I2dne)

320 313. Ya need Reaver and a laptop to run it. Might take some time, but it'll get the job done.

So I hear.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, GECSPLAN, SMR, and Ancient Slavonaut Newsletters at October 16, 2018 11:58 AM (fA1SL)

321 Never look, ah, gift whores in the mouth.

Posted by: Fritz at October 16, 2018 11:58 AM (2Mnv1)

322 >>Please answer seriously. I'd like to know what you all would do with all the old people and the crippled. There's like 14% of the total population over 65.

Reduce - ReUse - Recylce

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (ax1SH)

323 i'm conflicted on SS and SSDI. I am on SSDI and it is a lifesaver without it I could not survive. I feel guilty and like a hypocrite for taking the money. My health issues are well documented and severe but I can't help but feeling like a fraud.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (0OmEj)

324 313
Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea
what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it?
Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (lwiT4)

It is listed on the bottom of your WiFi router.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (mpXpK)

325 Kick all those people off Social Security "disability". Make them all reapply through central offices, not the local rubber stamp factories.

Social Security would be solvent in six months. Guaranteed.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (VpIIl)

326 The Red Sox play again tonight.
I think it's a 5:00 start.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (Evws/)

327 People living longer. SS and Medicare qualifying age must go up to 70 at least.

Posted by: Curmudgeon at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (ujg0T)

328
We (wife and I) won our personal war on poverty some time ago--we aren't rich, just comfortable. Took a lot of years and huge commitment to do it.

SS didn't factor into it originally--cost of living took care of that, though.
Now, SS is a cushion.

I do NOT consider it to be an entitlement, rather a rebate of the taxes extorted from me over time. It was always my understanding that SS was a tax collected and the proceeds invested to grow it for future generations to make the thing viable for the future.

Fuckers lied to me, and if it were possible ALL of them would suffer retribution.

Posted by: irongrampa at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (S/hVx)

329 313 Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.
Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (lwiT4)

Might depend on the provider, but I can log into my account and change my password anytime.

As long as your mom remembers her account info (if she never set one up, it should be easy to do so,) and you have a data plan to get on the web sans wifi, you should be able to do so.

Alternatively, you can probably just call the provider to have it reset. (Would still need some account information from your mom.)

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (72PAC)

330 What's the master's degree in?

History. You know, the thing that everyone want to talk about and bemoan the fact that everyone else doesn't know what they think they ought to know, but is apparently unwilling to do anything about it.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (bZ7mE)

331
"Colion Noir"? That does not sound like a real name.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at October 16, 2018 11:06 AM (Fz8ov)

It's not. That's his nom de YouTube. He's a long-time 2A activist and has a regular feature on NRA-TV. Also, a lawyer here in Texas, if memory serves.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (veoSD)

332 Please answer seriously."

What happens when the tap runs dry? Seriously.

FWIW, "old" folks didn't just curl up and die prior to SS/Medicrap, so cut that idiocy out.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (6qErC)

333 You guys who keep saying that SS is and always has been just another tax are missing a big something. As it was originally developed you could not collect a nickle of SS unless you paid into it for a certain number of quarters. My mother never collected a dime in SS because they said she did not work and pay into it enough quarters. LBJ changed all that in the 60s when he owned all three levels of government. It became just another welfare program when you could collect on it without working a day in your life.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:53 AM (mpXpK)
===============================
this is false. the very first payout of SS was to a person who barely paid in and recouped her investment thousandfold. The SSA brags about this. Social Security has always been a pyramid scheme.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (qJjzH)

334 -
--
Please answer seriously.

-----------------

Ahh. You are new.

Posted by: irright at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (pMGkg)

335 Please answer seriously. I'd like to know what you all would do with all the old people and the crippled. There's like 14% of the total population over 65.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (sgZqZ)

---

I think I already did, sort of. They stay on but the system is killed for new members. Anyone under 65 can choose a tax free lump sum buyout of what they paid in, and it will be tax free when they withdraw it from the Roth they roll it into, too. Anyone who stays in gets to pay more in SS taxes for a reduced benefit when they finally are eligible to draw it at 92 or some other ridiculous number.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (83Wfa)

336 Tort inflicts a lot of costs across the board, in defensive practices, and in limiting activity due to liability, and in raising the cost of insurance. It's not just awards and settlements, it's a lot of things from record-keeping to lack of new drugs/practices entering the market.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (oVJmc)

337 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day

Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (80Uh3)

338 It is listed on the bottom of your WiFi router.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (mpXpK)

That's what I thought too. I asked my mom to look but she says she doesn't know where the router is. Uff da. Old people.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (lwiT4)

339 I have seen reports several years ago to 50% of all people who are on SSDI are doing so because of fraud and abuse.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (mpXpK)

340 i'm conflicted on SS and SSDI. I am on SSDI and it is a lifesaver without it I could not survive. I feel guilty and like a hypocrite for taking the money. My health issues are well documented and severe but I can't help but feeling like a fraud.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (0OmEj)
+++++++++++
SSDI isn't perfect, but I see some benefit to a civilization helping its citizens who are truly unable to help themselves. The problem with SSDI is fraud. The states *love* SSDI fraud and many have people on payroll who help you do it. Welfare is often a state-financed affair, but SSDI is federal. Any person that can be moved from welfare to disability is a win for the state, so there are huge incentives toward disability fraud.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (I2dne)

341 We're bleeding red ink yet the Federal Government has collected a record amount of taxes this year. If people can't understand what the real problem is.

Posted by: Concerned People's Front at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (+KUWZ)

342 The Red Sox play again tonight."

So do the Astros. In Houston.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (6qErC)

343 Oh and the ppl on ss feeling entitled to it? Well they are kind of because they paid into the system to support the old ppl alive when they were young.

We could just call it a old peoples welfare system but they tried to make it have some relation to how much productivity a person did during their life which is probably better than just giving it away.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (sgZqZ)

344 I debunked that last week. They don't stop your SS because you make xx amount of dollars. They simply tax the shit out of it.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 11:56 AM (mpXpK)

Distinction, without difference, and all that....

Posted by: Curmudgeon at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (ujg0T)

345 337 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day
Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (80Uh3)

===========

His tweeting is so baked into the cake of American politics that I can't imagine it moves anyone anymore.

It's mostly just white noise these days.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (9ZlHt)

346 What I don't like is being called an entitled,
spoiled millennial by folks who are depending on my money for their
retirement, particularly when I followed all their advice for getting a
good job and have ended up doing manual labor with a Master's degree.
I'm not going to get social security and I can't save for retirement, so
I'm pretty screwed through no fault of my own. Y'all don't have to add
insult to injury.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 16, 2018 11:51 AM

I have three graduate degrees. Worked at a wine and spirits super store for awhile earlier this year. At my age I hated going up those ladders...but at my age it frequently took me 30-40 minutes to come down. IYKWIMAITTYD. I have delayed SS because I was making too much. I took that job because it was fun.

Posted by: Diogenes at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (0tfLf)

347 Please answer seriously. I'd like to know what you all would do with all the old people and the crippled. There's like 14% of the total population over 65.

Posted by: jakee308

In theory, this is where family and private charity should step in--historically it's exactly how it happened. In practice, the decimation of the family and the degeneration of private charity to a combination of underfunded concerns and money-making scams mean there's going to be a lot of folks with nowhere to sit when the music stops.

This is not to say I want it that way. But I'm not really sure how it's avoided at this stage.

Posted by: Brother Cavil at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (AM1GF)

348 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day

Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (80Uh3)

I know!! Otherwise I'm going to vote for Tammy Baldwin !!!!

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (lwiT4)

349 61>>>

Free Shit Army.

Posted by: Hikaru at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (O/85K)

350 She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.

------

If she left it as default (probably did). It will be listed on a sticker or placard on the bottom or back of the wireless router.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (AzW6q)

351 338
That's what I thought too. I asked my mom to look but she says she doesn't know where the router is. Uff da. Old people.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (lwiT4)

You will have to find it for her. It is at the end of the line being fed from the modem.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (mpXpK)

352 >>Kick all those people off Social Security "disability". Make them all reapply through central offices, not the local rubber stamp factories.

>>Social Security would be solvent in six months. Guaranteed.

This idea needs a little tweak:

We devise a graded 'Disability Obstacle Course' and Televise the Contestants as they compete for Benefits.

American Social Secutiy Warrior

Posted by: garrett at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (ax1SH)

353 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day
Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (80Uh3)

Who's going to stop him?

Posted by: JoeF. at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (NFEMn)

354 Fuckers lied to me, and if it were possible ALL of them would suffer retribution.
Posted by: irongrampa

End SS and you will see retribution.

Take everything a person has and leave them with nothing and then they truly have nothing to lose.

Posted by: rickb223 at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (0mP7b)

355 If you haven't shot or burned all your DeNiro movies yet, please do so immediately. After his last rant calling everyone who supports Trump evil, and we will regret it, etc., someone should kick that dope in the nuts.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 12:03 PM (VpIIl)

356 I'll take things that make you go, "Hmmmmm" for a thousand, Alex.

WHOA! The FBI raided the offices of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 12:03 PM (+y/Ru)

357 356 I'll take things that make you go, "Hmmmmm" for a thousand, Alex.

WHOA! The FBI raided the offices of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 12:03 PM (+y/Ru)

Well yeah, how else are they going to prove the Hurricane was Trump's fault?

Posted by: What's a Seawolf? at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (72PAC)

358 This is not to say I want it that way. But I'm not really sure how it's avoided at this stage."

Me neither, but I really, really hope the solution doesn't start with either "final" or "WW"

Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (6qErC)

359 i'm conflicted on SS and SSDI. I am on SSDI and it is a lifesaver without it I could not survive. I feel guilty and like a hypocrite for taking the money. My health issues are well documented and severe but I can't help but feeling like a fraud.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (0OmEj)

---

Nope. You're exactly who the system is set up for and I want it to be there for the honest instances.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (83Wfa)

360 You will have to find it for her. It is at the end of the line being fed from the modem.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:02 PM (mpXpK)

Thanks Vic. With a little digging, I'm sure I'll find it. It's very hard to explain this kind of stuff to my mom. She's in the cloud somewhere.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (lwiT4)

361 Erick Erickson
@EWErickson
In fairness, Elizabeth Warren's DNA test shows she's got a greater connection to the Hispanic community than Beto O'Rourke has.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (+y/Ru)

362 98 Warren's Indian name: "Stands With Affirmative Action"?

No, no, that's too easy, and not very funny. So is "Spreading Bull." "Dances With 23 and Me"? "Throws Bull Far Woman"?

I like Walking Eagle (Too full of crap to fly)

Posted by: JB1000 at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (16OL0)

363 Most federal taxes collected in a year --ever. And yet the deficit continues to grow. As the Chinese say Sum Ting
Wong here.

Of course the answer is that if you spend more than you take in, the deficit goes u.

Posted by: Comanche Voter at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (Sda6L)

364 Distinction without a difference . . .

I beg to differ, my good man.

Posted by: Chief Justice Johnny Rob at October 16, 2018 12:04 PM (9KUj4)

365 His tweeting is so baked into the cake of American politics that I can't imagine it moves anyone anymore.

It's mostly just white noise these days.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, Order The Battle of Lake Erie in Paperback Today! at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (9ZlHt)

Mostly but he gets in a few zingers every now and then. LOL

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 16, 2018 12:05 PM (9MKXa)

366 i'm conflicted on SS and SSDI. I am on SSDI and it
is a lifesaver without it I could not survive. I feel guilty and like a
hypocrite for taking the money. My health issues are well documented
and severe but I can't help but feeling like a fraud. Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (0OmEj)
=====

I was on food stamps and daycare assistance for at least five years (single parent 4 kids under 8 at the time) and I was treated very well. I felt the same way until the head of the office came in and fixed the paperwork and said that for once, she felt like she was doing what they were supposed to be doing. Made me feel marginally better.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 16, 2018 12:05 PM (MIKMs)

367 That's what I thought too. I asked my mom to look but she says she doesn't know where the router is. Uff da. Old people.

------

Tell her to find the modem (box connected to wall). Then find the box that's connected to THAT box.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 16, 2018 12:05 PM (AzW6q)

368 Nood. Ace

Posted by: JAS at October 16, 2018 12:05 PM (3HNOQ)

369 Ace up

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:05 PM (mpXpK)

370 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day
Posted by: Arumaito

Oh fuck yes!

Posted by: DNC at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (tqyrn)

371
Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (lwiT4)

If she hasn't changed it, it'll be on the bottom of the router. Otherwise, you can connect through ethernet cable, and bring up the router admin page by the IP address (you'll need to get that from the router documentation, which can be had online). Once you're on the admin page, you can read or change the wifi password.

Doing a full network reset to default should be avoided until you try the above.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (veoSD)

372 -
--
God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day

Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM

------

The real question is: Does this cause you to be concerned?

Posted by: irright at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (pMGkg)

373 f you haven't shot or burned all your DeNiro movies yet, please do so immediately. After his last rant calling everyone who supports Trump evil, and we will regret it, etc., someone should kick that dope in the nuts.
Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 12:03 PM (VpIIl)
I'd like to know why really lies at the heart of DeNiro's hatred of Trump. It's not all political as I don't recall him excoriating Bush or Cheney on a daily basis. It's not all Trump Derangement Syndrome--although that's part of it.
Must go back to New York, decades ago.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (NFEMn)

374 Elizabeth Warren's land was stolen from her. By the palefaces.

Her ancestry was stolen by the Gang of 1023!

Posted by: t-bird at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (CE5C/)

375 God, Trump just needs to stop until after election day

Posted by: Arumaito at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (80Uh3)

Why? Seriously. When have his awesome Twatter barrages ever done any real damage? He always comes out ahead when this happens.

He is exactly the right guy at the right time.

Moar please. Bigly.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lonely Gloat-herd at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (xPJvm)

376 Leaving for a week or so to visit my mom in Phoenix. She has no idea what her WiFi password is. Anyone know how to take steps to recover it? Otherwise I'm going to be Ace-less for a while.
Posted by: grammie winger

Find the router model. A quick web search will discover the IP address for that router that gives you the means to set passwords, fiddle with ports, etc. It will also show you the default login and password for it (which is why you should NEVER keep the defaults...) Using this info, a machine already on the network can set/reset the WiFi password, among other things.

Posted by: Brother Cavil at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (AM1GF)

377 "Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 11:59 AM (0OmEj)
"
You are precisely who that system was setup for, and I'm presuming you're a vet. Double.

They opened up SSDI to immigrants and some illegals and their sponsored parents or spouses years ago. These are the people raiding that system, stealing from everyone who paid in. It's a disgrace.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (VpIIl)

378 Women Say Heitkamp Campaign Identified Them as Sexual Assault Survivors Without Their Permission

-
Heidi Heidi Ho!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (+y/Ru)

379 I really cannot believe we are going to blow up the middle east again over A FUCKING "JOURNALIST"

Posted by: Kreplach at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (kT3/m)

380 Kick all those people off Social Security "disability". Make them all
reapply through central offices, not the local rubber stamp factories.

Are you serious? The "disability" in quotes thing. As if there are not disabled people. Even among the horde. My brother was severely "disabled" and in a group home for years, until he died. He received SSDI. He's dead now, so I guess that saves you some money. I'm real glad about that.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (lwiT4)

381 Bottom line. The burning times are coming, even if you planned and saved the dollar won't be worth a shit some day soon.
The good news, it'll give the world a reset, a chance to redraw some borders and to set up new governments that actually represent the views of the people. A new breath of liberty for some. But since people never learn, those governments will repeat the same mistakes as those that fell before. And on and on it goes.

Have a nice day everyone!

Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (Mr80f)

382 LBJ changed all that in the 60s when he owned all three levels of government. It became just another welfare program when you could collect on it without working a day in your life.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party
......

Vic - you have no idea what you are talking about..

I told the story of my wife up above.. if you do not pay in enough quarters, you get nothing.. that is today, not 1960.

And you are also wrong about the SS being withheld from you if you are still working. If you make more that about $18,000 this year, you get penalized and they do not send you SS. This applies as long as you are under full retirement age.

From SS gov website:

"If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, we deduct $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. For 2018, that limit is $17,040."

http://tinyurl.com/yafps522

Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (438dO)

383 I have white hot anger at the disability frauds. The frauds fuck all the people that pay they double fuck the people who are truly disabled. I don't want to be in the system. If I could go back to work I would in a heartbeat.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 12:08 PM (0OmEj)

384 "Posted by: JoeF. at October 16, 2018 12:06 PM (NFEMn)
"

DeNiro has always been a piece of shit with weird Left Wing views. Years ago we hung out in one of his restaurants and you would hear this garbage all the time. But he's even more kooky now that he's older.

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 12:09 PM (VpIIl)

385 grammie, carry a LAN cable with you in case you need to hook directly to it. It looks like a large phone cable and will go in that port on the side of your laptop. Check your junk drawer or that box with all the weird computer stuff you never use. I know you've got one.

It will let you hook directly to it and access the HQ so we can walk you through if the sticker isn't on the case.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 12:09 PM (83Wfa)

386 I don't want to be in the system. If I could go back to work I would in a heartbeat.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 12:08 PM (0OmEj)

You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. I read up on your condition, and my heart breaks for you. People are assholes.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:10 PM (lwiT4)

387 Anyone know how to take steps to recover it?

Many routers now have the network name and password printed on a sticker on the router. (And if somebody has broken into your house just to get free wi-fi, well, consider yourself lucky)

Posted by: t-bird at October 16, 2018 12:10 PM (lK7fO)

388 Posted by: Anon a mouse at October 16, 2018 12:00 PM (6qErC)

Prior to the SS benefit laws, ppl relied on their relatives/family and it wasn't going very well. Why do you think they came up with SS? Because a lot of old ppl were dying from neglect as they had no family to take care of them and no money and couldn't work. It was a union talking point and a flash point for communists to win elections.

FDR et al got scared of a communist revolution so they came up with SS.

Your turn.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (sgZqZ)

389

Thanks Robbie - if I can't connect thru her router, is that LAN cable something I could pick up at Walmart?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (lwiT4)

390 "Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 12:08 PM (0OmEj)
"

If you went to a local Social Security office and saw who was applying, and who was taking the application and advising people on how to ensure they get it by lying or going to certain doctors you would stroke out. It' s enraging and a scam for which Congress is partially to blame .

Posted by: Marcus T at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (VpIIl)

391 Trump sees federal deficit soar in first full year

Two words: Tangible Assets.

The government has only two options on our debt, a controlled default, or a stealth default through inflation.

I know which of the two they will choose.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 16, 2018 12:12 PM (cN2IQ)

392 is that LAN cable something I could pick up at Walmart?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (lwiT4)

Yes. Buy the cheapest one. They are pretty much all the same.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 12:13 PM (wYseH)

393 FDR et al got scared of a communist revolution so they came up with SS.

Your turn.
Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (sgZqZ)
=================================
FDR was a communist sympathizer. He started SS to get people on the govt teat, because it's impossible to remove people from it. FDR's new deal fucked the country and created the bloated federal giant we suffer under today. He wanted to destroy the country, and he succeeded.

Posted by: Deebly super elite at October 16, 2018 12:13 PM (qJjzH)

394 Please answer seriously. I'd like to know what you all would do with all the old people and the crippled. There's like 14% of the total population over 65.
Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 11:57 AM (sgZqZ)

What did we do before social security and Medicare? I agree there has to be a safety net but that has turned into a safety mansion. Once the government is expected to take care of you cradle to grave , the ability of people to prepare for the future gradually deteriorates. It also has led to family deterioration IMO as families are who took care of their elders in the past. There has to be some gradual reform where people can learn again take responsibility for themselves.

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 12:14 PM (/BXzQ)

395 Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (mpXpK)

I've heard it said that a lot of the Disability claims are filed by government workers who know how to game the system.

Particularly in the urban areas.

It is very bad and that's because there's little money spent to stop fraud. Many cases have been found of the case workers cheating the system for themselves and others.

Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 12:14 PM (sgZqZ)

396 Thanks CBD.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:14 PM (lwiT4)

397 Thanks Robbie - if I can't connect thru her router, is that LAN cable something I could pick up at Walmart?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (lwiT4)

---

Yes, but if you know any computer geeks they've probably got a dozen they'd give you for free. They come with lots of devices.

Heck, it looks like you can get a 50' one for $10 shipped right to your house. Sprawl it out through her house and you're set. I'm kidding, btw, but it's certainly an option. There are shorter ones, of course, but $5-$10 is probably the norm.

Here's a link:

https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Ethernet-Cable-
White-Connectors/dp/B00WD017GQ

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 12:15 PM (83Wfa)

398 381 Bottom line. The burning times are coming, even if you planned and saved the dollar won't be worth a shit some day soon.
The good news, it'll give the world a reset, a chance to redraw some borders and to set up new governments that actually represent the views of the people. A new breath of liberty for some. But since people never learn, those governments will repeat the same mistakes as those that fell before. And on and on it goes.
Posted by: lowandslow at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (Mr80f)

Yeah, that's pretty much what we have to look forward to.

Posted by: rickl at October 16, 2018 12:16 PM (xjiRE)

399 Posted by: jakee308 at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (sgZqZ)M

Do you also think there were thousands of deaths every year from back alley abortions?

Posted by: Lancelot Link Secret Agent Chimp at October 16, 2018 12:16 PM (/BXzQ)

400 I've been to the local SS office, It was stroke worthy. Between all of the obvious fraud (although you can never tell all of what is going on with a person just by appearance) and the bureaucracy on full display. Fed office workers are over-payed and under-worked.

Posted by: USNtakim profoundly deplorable. at October 16, 2018 12:17 PM (0OmEj)

401 Thanks Moron Robbie - I'm headed to Chicago in a couple hours, then on to Phoenix early am. No time for shipping, but at least now I have options.

1. Find the sticker on the router
2. Do the cable thing

Thanks!

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:17 PM (lwiT4)

402 The debt nightmare goes back to Bush's emergency budget for the "fiscal crisis" with a huge bump in deficit spending. After that, with Obama in power, the Democrats just kept passing continuing resolutions wihich bake in the total budget numbers from the year before which in that case was a huge budget-busting deficit. They did this for as long as they were in power, and when the GOPe got the reigns of the Senate back, they decided all that CR money could buy a lot of votes. And here we are.

Posted by: OCBill at October 16, 2018 12:17 PM (df+Zi)

403 Have fun and be safe, grammie.

Posted by: Moron Robbie - Google Is Always Listening - Link in nic at October 16, 2018 12:17 PM (83Wfa)

404 382 Posted by: Chi-Town Jerry at October 16, 2018 12:07 PM (438dO)

You are wrong wrong wrong. I collect SS and make a fairly large amount off of stocks and dividends. They do not withhold a single dime of my SS. I don't have to ask my wife, I am a user.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:19 PM (mpXpK)

405 Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:17 PM (lwiT4)

===

Same thing happened to me. Mom had written all her passwords in a notebook then lost the notebook.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 12:19 PM (EZebt)

406 389

Thanks Robbie - if I can't connect thru her router, is that LAN cable something I could pick up at Walmart?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 16, 2018 12:11 PM (lwiT4)

DO NOT buy computer cables from WalMart. They charge and arm and a leg. Get them from Amazon look for the term cat5e.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:21 PM (mpXpK)

407 I have seen reports several years ago to 50% of all people who are on SSDI are doing so because of fraud and abuse.
Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:01 PM (mpXpK)

===

And they all eventually wind up on Judge Judy.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2018 12:23 PM (EZebt)

408 SS is the reason I'll try never to retire (even though I'm collecting it now). The division over SS does not bode well for people who've accepted the socialist idea of retirement.

Posted by: Sooner at October 16, 2018 12:26 PM (Fs5vw)

409 DO NOT buy computer cables from WalMart. They charge and arm and a leg. Get them from Amazon look for the term cat5e.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 16, 2018 12:21 PM (mpXpK)

As a network tech: Don't buy cheap Chinese cable, either.

Posted by: Cato by Phone at October 16, 2018 12:29 PM (J+mig)

410 And if the tech solutions don't work out, go get a Vulcan and have them do a mind-meld with the wi-fi router.

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 16, 2018 12:43 PM (QLvwG)

411 Hyperinflation. Lasts about 5 to 8 years in other countries. It's not fun, not even for the chaps on welfare who bring us to that point(How many people here knew that Rome had a dole?)

That's what will happen. Stocks, because they're ownership in assets, are pretty resilient to inflation. Be a capital holder. Doesn't have to be stocks, you can own land and businesses more directly, but stocks are more liquid.

The only other alternative is to cut back on thr welfare spending(and yes SS is welfare, I don't care what you've conceptualized it as). Given the two options, most countries go with hyperinflation.

Posted by: Someguy at October 16, 2018 01:28 PM (ZiIrF)

412 @39 Math is hard.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 16, 2018 11:09 AM (wYseH)

Like all my good ideas, this is something I stole from someone else on the internet, fair and square. But not only is math hard, but we also don't comprehend what big numbers mean.

To illustrate:

Most of us envision a second with something like "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, etc" or maybe "One thousand one, one thousand two, etc".

But what about a million seconds? What would that look like?

If you do the math, a million seconds ago was......

11 days ago. Today is the 16th, so 11 days ago was the 5th. I might have to think a minute or two about it, but I could probably tell you what I was doing on the 5th.

How about a billion seconds? When was that?

More math gives us.......

1986. Yep. A billion seconds equals 31.7 years.

Now, the big one. A trillion seconds. When was that?

No cheating. I can see you reaching for the calculator from here.

A trillion seconds ago was ±30,000 BC.

So when they publish our debt as $20T, that's what it means. A dollar every second for the next 600,000 years.

So when you say that the fed.gov doesn't have the option to declare bankruptcy, I say "nonsense". We are bankrupt....its just that no one wants to admit it.

Posted by: Action Jackson is my name. Bold adventure is my game. at October 16, 2018 01:33 PM (kJuhe)

413 "Stagnant" taxes?

https://tinyurl.com/yag2mfn3

Posted by: MW at October 16, 2018 02:21 PM (hNTtn)

414 Oh, we are definitely screwed. We passed the point of no return back when Debt to GDP was about 1:2 - particularly since much actual debt isn't even counted as debt because it's not "secured."

There is no painless way out. There is no low-pain way out. There are ways out, yes, but they will all cost economic blood.

Pick your poison, but it is poison at this point.

A hard rain is gonna fall. Largely on our kids, but everyone is going to get wet. The "greatest generation" screwed us, their kids doubled down on it, and every generation since then has been whistling past the graveyard.

It's a game of musical chairs with 10 players and 5 chairs. It ain't gonna work out nice.

Posted by: RobM1981 at October 16, 2018 04:02 PM (3NZRn)

Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.0531 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.02 seconds, 423 records returned.
Page size 251 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.