What is an Entitlement?
Posted: Thursday, November 17, 2011
by Richard Walrath
Articles and Answers.com
By Richard E Walrath
Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) made the following statement before the Economic Club of Washington when referring to the deficit super committee “when it comes to producing savings to reach its $1.5 trillion deficit-reduction target, the joint select committee has only one option: spending cuts and entitlement reform".
When many Republicans talk about entitlements, it’s as if they’re referring to some sort of nasty give-away system that the Democrats have put in place for the sole purpose of spending taxpayer funds.
Democrats were asleep, as usual; when they let Republicans pound away, month after month, about the “deficit" problem. No, it’s a revenue problem–the lack, thereof, because of the Bush tax cuts. How many trillions of $$$$$ have they cost, so far?
“Entitlements" as they are referred to in the United States are simply governmentinsurance programs that ‘we the people’ pay into. The reason we are ‘entitled’ to these benefits, i.e. Social Security, and Medicare is because we finance them through taxes.
Not only do we pay into them, the second highest source of revenue in the United States [for 2011] is from Social Insurance programs. FICA and SECA taxes contributed a total of 35.3 percent of total revenues for 2011. On a comparative basis, Corporate Income taxes represented 8.3 percent of total revenues for 2011.
You would have to collect more than four times as much in corporate income taxes to equal the amount paid into ‘entitlement’ programs by ‘we the people’.
The problem with entitlements exists right now due to the fact Medicare Part D was put into place, by the Bush Administration, without a provision for the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate pharmaceutical costs. The solution is simply to change the negotiation rules on Part D and the entire problem will be solved by significantly lowering prescription costs. Veterans Affairs is allowed to negotiate their medication costs with the pharmaceutical industry resulting in significant savings to VA. The same would apply to Medicare if the rules were changed.
© 2011 Richard E Walrath and Patricia L Johnson
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Social Security and Medicare are not entitlement programs because we paid into them when they were advertised as retirement and retirement medical. Every paycheck we put money into Social Security and Medicare. The money was to be put in an interest bearing account to be held for our retirement and helth needs and we would get updates about how much we would get when we retired and when we would be eligible for our health care. But the government robbed from this fund and now its turned into a trick on the american workers. HaHa we fooled you, the money you put in we stole and now we are taking away your benefits. Well the money politicians get when they retire, which they did not pay for and their health care, which they did not pay for are entitlements.
They need to go or be reduced. Unions are an entitlement. They don't pay for retirement or other monies. Bad teachers can be sent to a building to sit and will still collect their salaries. No No No, you cannot rob from the poor and give to the rich. We the People will not let it happen.
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