Democrats Resist Cuts to Entitlement Spending

[Wickabee]

PBS and NPR get about $8million (please correct me) if I remember correctly.
When you ask who gets to decide what is wasteful, do you realize that question can be asked of anything? What social programs are wasteful and who decides? I guess there will be no cuts.

[centrehice]

Cut your paranoid Military Budget....

The best thing that any US Government could do is take Fox off the airwaves, then people would once again be able to think for themselves.

Sorry, but Sean Hannity is not Wizard of Christchurch. If you look further and approach Fox and it's environs with an open mind, you will see that all the dogs are not barking in Mr. Hannity's yard.

[mrveggieman]

i am unsure how much PS and NPR is contributing to the mess. the cuts do need to be wasteful military spending, but who gets to say what is wasteful? also, there is no way we cannot seriously reform and cut welfare programs.

veggie, I do agree with cutting faith based programs, but abstinence does not have to do with religion, just a good practice.

You are right. Practicing abstience will greatly reduce ones chances of STDs and unwanted pregancies. Abstience only edcuation however will increase onces chances of acquiring an STD or having an unwanted pregancy.

[Imac7065]

Republicans want to privatize Medicare and Social Security, not "cut entitlements". They want to break things so they can say they "never worked in the first place". They do this so they can then get rid of them and the rich can get richer again.... that's the republican play book.. and it's what they are playing here.

In the end we will probably see a raising of the SS retirement age coupled with raising the SS tax cap (I think it's around 150k right now?) With Medicare will will see part D cut in size and advantage should just go away completely (this is the crap you see on TV offering you a free power wheelchair or catheters, and the "716 billion" you heard them argue over in the election)

That takes care of the "left issues"... now

Restore the rates of the tax code to 1999 levels (I would do this even for the middle class, but it won't happen that way)... then end the BS tax breaks for things like:
The cost of outsourcing your business, inheriting over 6 million dollars, making over 10 million a year in the stock market, not counting stock market profits as actual income... etc etc

That takes care of the "right issues"

Now...

-Re enforce the regulations taken away in 1999 (Dobbs Frank started this ball, we need to finish it, these regulations were put in place to stop depressions)
- End the ability for Banks to monopolize a market.. there shouldn't be 5-10 banks in the United States.. there should be hundreds
- End the ability of TV networks to monopolize TV markets.. this is how we got crap like fox news and MSNBC.. they do not fear competition anymore. Getting rid of this crap would end TONS of gridlock we see in Washington in a domino effect.


Now here's some sweeping changes...
- Put term limits on congress... 10 terms in congress (20 years) and 4 terms in the senate (24 years) is more than fair.. we don't need 90 year olds in the senate and Michelle Bachman's in congress.
- End the electoral college. This created party politics and gave us our 2 party system
- Federalize all elections. To run for a federal office (Congress, senate, president) you should be forced to obtain verified petitions.. then given xx amount of dollars to run in that election. This DOES NOT violate the first amendment as right wingers will scream.. there is nothing preventing anyone from expressing their views and opinions in an election.. it's called volunteering.

Do all of the above... we go back to the smooth running country we were for most of the 20th century.. and can continue to progess long into the future.

[tpeichel]

Cut your paranoid Military Budget....

The best thing that any US Government could do is take Fox off the airwaves, then people would once again be able to think for themselves.

Sorry, but Sean Hannity is not Wizard of Christchurch. If you look further and approach Fox and it's environs with an open mind, you will see that all the dogs are not barking in Mr. Hannity's yard.

I'm pretty sure stifling free speech isn't the answer.

[Wickabee]

Reigning in the media a little might help.

[tpeichel]

Reigning in the media a little might help.

How?

[Wickabee]

They're the biggest reason the people of America are so divided.

[AUTaxMan]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49978807

Get your party in line, Mr. Obama. This is no time for Democrats to be playing hardball. It seems the same ignorance that plagued the Republican party during the debt ceiling debacle is seeping over to the Dems.

Did you expect anything less? Obviously they aren't concerned with reforming anything.

[shrewsbury]

wickabee, I am in agreement with you on the media, it seems someone is extreme in one form or the other and it's a mess!