[quote]TooHuman wrote:
[quote]Sloth wrote:
[quote]Last I checked republicans were also the party of smaller government. And I think quite a bit could be solved if the federal government was perhaps cut in half. And of course the nanny state ended permanently.
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Even if they were the party of smaller government [when was this?], the American people aren’t. The beginning of Perry’s demise started with referring to SS as a “ponzi” scheme. We’ve got Romney basically sounding like a Democrat in it’s defense. The last survey of tea party folk (the tp even!) I’ve seen put on display the usual malarky about SS and Medicare, “Cut fraud and waste, then leave them alone…” That wouldn’t even come close to making them solvent for the mid/long term…
By 2025 we’re paying interest, SS, and Medicare. Anything else is paid for with whatever borrowed money we can still get. Who is our front runner now? Mr. Romney-care, flip-flop, perfect hair.
Honestly, they’re all terrible candidates. They know they can’t make deep enough cuts to offset zero tax raises, and/or continue to fight these wars (possibly expanding them). We’ve got candidates, but we don’t have any leaders. The two parties, Dumb and Dumber.
We’re done as a super-power. We’re done, regardless of how anybody feels about foreign policy, being the policeman. We’re done with keeping tax rates down. And we’re done with untouchable social programs. We just haven’t caught up to all that, yet. But it 'aint far off.[/quote]
A couple of things here:
“‘Cut fraud and waste, then leave them alone…’ That wouldn’t even come close to making them solvent for the mid/long term…”
A pyramid scheme is by definition a form a fraud and insolvent. If you take the Government at their word to the SCOTUS at the time of it’s passage, SS is actually just a tax not tied to the “trust fund”. If you believe those government officials that claim the “trust fund” is funded by SS payment, then it is a pyramid scheme.
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And if it is a fraud then we don’t owe it.
And why, oh why hasn’t Ron Paul ever been able to get his audit of the Federal Reserve? He’s been pushing for that thing since ZEB was my age.