The Republican Love Fest After the Tax Bill was passed.......

[iris lilies]

That 21% limit would probably be impossible to sustain unless we're willing to put limits on entitlement spending growth. Paul Ryan and I would be willing to help you try.

I am always comforted by the thought of grownups in the room. You two could take on the deficit in my book. Please also steal away the red button from The Trumpster.

[LDAHL]

I am always comforted by the thought of grownups in the room. You two could take on the deficit in my book. Please also steal away the red button from The Trumpster.

My wife suggested we get him a “busy box” like the one our daughter used to have. We could put a rally big red button with a “boom!’ “ sound effect.

[jp1]

That 21% limit would probably be impossible to sustain unless we're willing to put limits on entitlement spending growth. Paul Ryan and I would be willing to help you try.

Or we could cut the military budget to a reasonable level. Dmc said he wants people to care more about where the money goes. I'd much rather it go for healthcare and old age pensions than death and destruction.

[LDAHL]

Or we could cut the military budget to a reasonable level. Dmc said he wants people to care more about where the money goes. I'd much rather it go for healthcare and old age pensions than death and destruction.

Apart from the occasional utility of properly managed death and destruction, we could probably gut the military down to Canadian levels and still not save enough to cover the growth in entitlements for long.

[catherine]

Apart from the occasional utility of properly managed death and destruction, we could probably gut the military down to Canadian levels and still not save enough to cover the growth in entitlements for long.

What do you think we should do? What entitlements should be reined in? Who would lose out?

It just seems crazy to me that we increase the national debt to enrich people who don't need a thing, but while the "fiscally-responsible" Republicans are more than happy for the country to go into further indebtedness if it's going to benefit them, meanwhile, they're trying to figure out how to further impoverish the have-nots.

dmc said that he's rich because he's one of the deserving ones who earned his stuff by working 50-60 hours a week. Good for him. I have a strong work ethic, too, and I also regularly work 50-60 hours a week. I'm very lucky, but that doesn't make me special, and it doesn't make people who work long hours as teachers, landscapers, domestic workers, or social workers any less special because they chose a less lucrative, but no less demanding, line of work. And there are scores of people with incredible work ethic who work 50-60-70 hours a week and come home with not even enough to keep the roof over their heads. And there are lazy sons-of-guns in every social strata. But because the laziness of some is hidden behind a wall of inherited wealth and privilege, nobody notices.

[nswef]

+1 Catherine.

[JaneV2.0]

I completely agree, Catherine.

Maybe if the oligarchs weren't so hell-bent on cutting taxes/revenue to the bone, we'd have the monies necessary to fund programs that benefit the rest of us.

[ApatheticNoMore]

probably the only entitlement that is growing at a high rate is medicare and it's because medicine isn't working very well in the U.S. period. It makes no sense to group all entitlements in with the mess that is the U.S. healthcare system.

dmc said that he's rich because he's one of the deserving ones who earned his stuff by working 50-60 hours a week. Good for him. I have a strong work ethic, too, and I also regularly work 50-60 hours a week. I'm very lucky, but that doesn't make me special, and it doesn't make people who work long hours as teachers, landscapers, domestic workers, or social workers any less special because they chose a less lucrative, but no less demanding, line of work.

I think we should highly discourage 50-60 hour work weeks. They are not to be encouraged at all. They are pathology. But a few very few people have a great abiding passion for their work and nothing else but their work in life. Fine and maybe they are celibate and have no kids too (like Newton right?), but that really says nothing about the vast majority of cases where even when people like their jobs (and many don't), they also like their partners and their friends, and their families if they have them, and so need some time for them too (the cynical part of me says unsustainable work hours are usually sustained by women's unpaid labor, and if she works she also has a second shift doing housework, but ... I guess if one gets rich enough they can also hire everything out, get a maid and a cook).

In truth I was already putting in 50 hours for even a 40 hour a week job (and that's not counting housework), but I was only at work 40, as it's called commuting, add it right on top of the work hours if you are really going to estimate how much time work takes.

[frugal-one]

I would like to know exactly what you consider entitlements? I paid into Social Security and do NOT consider that an entitlement.

[iris lilies]

I would like to know exactly what you consider entitlements? I paid into Social Security and do NOT consider that an entitlement.

It is always funny to me how up in arms some people get about the word “entitlement” commonly used in the description of federal government programs. Entitlement programs are simply those that guarantee certain benefits to a specific segment of the population. It is a common term used to separate them from other spending programs. The word is not pejorative and it doesnt imply that recipients should not have the benefit.

But, carry on, get all riled up if you like.

Personally, I like to get riled up about the IRS term “unearned income “ because hell, I EARNED the capital that is throwing off that interest and dividend income, and yeah, I earn those amounts, too. And my reaction is just as irrational as yours because “unearned” is just a technical term used to separate that money from other types of incoming monies.