Today in history

Comments I’ve posted

1. Re: A VOTERS’ GUIDE TO REPUBLICANS –

   I wish ALL politicians would stop lumping Social Security and Medicare which ARE paid for, with welfare and Medicaid, which are NOT paid for. Social security and Medicare are NOT entitlements; they are paid for by taxes. (Yes, I know the crooked politicians have stolen the money and replaced it with IOU’s, but dammit, we PAID the damned taxes in the first place).

   I think they stopped playing the “IOU” con game with Social Security and Medicare back in the 1990s – now whatever is taken from your check with FICA and the “Medicare tax” goes straight into paying off existing “beneficiaries.” Now they’re both straight-up Ponzi schemes that would have Bernie Madoff proud. The difference is that Madoff never forced anyone to participate who refused to do so.

   Which brings me to my plan to “fix” Social Security and Medicare – these two programs aren’t fixable in the sense that they can work as advertised by just throwing more ØØØØØ at them, as Democrats and Republicans often advocate.

   My plan is simply that the U.S. Treasury should mail you a check for whatever you’ve paid into Social Security and Medicare, minus anything already collected from those programs as a “beneficiary.” At the same time those checks are mailed, the FICA tax and Medicare tax should be ended. Those who insist that those sort of programs are “essential” to the nation’s future are free to set up something along those lines as non-governmental, non-profit organizations (think United Way here).

   Once the checks have cleared and the taxes have ended, then we can lay off the employees, send the file cabinets and hard drives to the National Archives (sealed for 100 years), and finally sell off the buildings, office furniture, etc.

2. Re: Gene’s Nickle: Minimum Wage –

   Most union contracts are written so that wages are indexed to the minimum wage for jurisdiction in question – when the minimum goes up, so do the wages of the union members.

3. Re: The Storm of Tyranny Approaches –

   Say, can anyone here tell me exactly where in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution is the Congress or President authorized to mandate that everyone in America participate in any sort of national-health-care scheme, including Medicare?

Notes from Life, Etc.

1. CNM: Electronics 1201 / 1292 – Semiconductors and Solid-State Devices
   1. Got the results from my first test back today. I did way, way better than I should have (87.5 / 100), considering that I was having trouble staying the whole time I was taking said test.

Listening / Reading / Watching

1. G.I. Joe: Renegades

2. Freedom Watch

Today in history

Comments I’ve posted

1. Re: Time to take our country from both major parties –

   And he’s OK with allowing Iran to have nukes. . . . . I’m not willing to let ImADumbNutJob in Iran have even a slingshot.

   Like anyone in the United States has any Constitutional say in the matter other than persuading the Iranians to dump Ahmadinejad . . . ?

   (NO, I’m not referring to the sort of CIA-backed “persuasion” that was used to remove Mosaddegh in 1953.)

   For what it’s worth, Pakistan has just as many Islamic nutjobs (remember the Taliban?), as well as already having their own nukes. Why no hue and cry to “take action” against Pakistan?

   Kim Jong Il was just as bad as Saddam Hussein, and way worse than Ahmadinejad. There’s no sign that Kim Jong-Un is the slightest bit better. The North Korean regime has already tested its own nukes, as well as tested its own ballistic missiles, capable of reaching at least Alaska, and work is underway on a homebuilt ICBM. Why no hue and cry to “take action” against the DPRK?

   But hey, why piddle around with two-bit countries like these? Russia and China have way more nukes, and both have expressed antipathy towards American foreign policy at times. Why not take them on?

2. Re: Time to take our country from both major parties –

   Good position statement. It’ll unfortunately never get you elected.

   That’s right, Don. You and I both need to shut up about this “principles” crap and get behind “someone who can win,” in other words Heather Wilson, Mitt Romney, et al.

   Never mind that ObamaCare will become RomneyCare, with Wilson’s enthusiastic support.

   Any Republican disagrees with this is hereby invited to PROVE ME WRONG about that last line.

3. Re: Time to take our country from both major parties –

   These are the sorts of comments that got me kicked off Free Republic a few years ago. I guess RimJob is OK with things like gun bans and ObamaCare just so long as the politician who implements it has an “(R)” after its name.

4. Re: A VOTERS’ GUIDE TO REPUBLICANS –

   They [Republicans – MWB] want your Medicare to cease.

   NO, that’s us Libertarians, BTPers, among others. Ninety percent of Republican candidates and officeholders get their jollies by jiggling the numbers and telling socialist seniors that “I’m going to save Medicare.” For example, Bob Dole – in 1964 and 1965, Dole voted against creating Medicare, then spent the next thirty years telling the public “We Republicans can make this work.”

   Anyway, Medicare was only slated to cost the taxpayer something like Ø10,000,000,000 a year back when it signed into law back in 1965. What’s it up to now?

   And how much did George Bush push to rein in Medicare costs while the GOP held majorities in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate between 21 January 2001 and 2 January 2007? I’m not asking for an exact amount down to the last penny – just round off to the nearest billion.

5. Re: Test Petitions – do they work or not!? –

   Politicians routinely ignore online petitions – look at the games they play to avoid acknowledging (and responding to) paper petitions with handwritten signatures that they disagree with.

6. Re: Good grief! When Republicans sell out –

   I don’t see why this should be a surprise at all. How much spending did George Bush and the Republicans in Congress push to cut between 21 January 2001 and 2 January 2007, the time period in which the GOP had majorities in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate? No need for exact numbers here – just round off to the nearest billion. How many regulations did they sponsor repeals of during that time frame?

7. Re: Sen. Dems, is that the best you’ve got? –

   “new investments in a state entrepreneurial fund.”

   This would be another playground for cronies of the next pay-to-play empire-building Governor of the Richardson type.

   he rightly criticizes “tax giveaway’s to single companies or long-established industries.”

   That’s rich – what does (or did) Keller say about such projects proposed by Richardson – Green2V, Earthstone, among others?

8. Posted to my Facebook Wall –

   The relevant difference between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama (or Bob Dole, John McCain, Bill Clinton, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, or either version of George Bush . . . . ) isn’t really one of philosophy but of severity — all of the named individuals believe that they have the right to get what they want using initiated force or fraud. And they’re all cowards to boot – rather than rob, cheat, kidnap, assault or kill you themselves, they delegate it to “the troops,” “federal agents,” etc.

   

Today in history