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