Comments about ‘Robert J. Samuelson: Stop acting as if the elderly are a protected class’

Those 65 and older prove one thing : voting still works.

I worked for the government for 26 years, and there is one thing I know: If you eliminate the waste and the people who do nothing in do-nothing jobs and money that goes into the pockets of politically connected people/jobs, the deficit would disappear in a year.

If you want to cure the problem stop giving Medicare and Social Security to those who are not elderly (ie. over 65)

Along with children, the elderly and otherwise handicapped certainly are and should be a protected class. While programs may be inefficient and in some cases benefits may be more generous than we can afford, all of us who are fortunate enough to be productive should cooperate in supporting all those who can't.

Of course there is a range of ages at which some are disabled. Some in their 70's are still vigorous and productive, while others are enfeebled much earlier.

Don't say they are not worthy of protection, just propose details on where we can make our support programs more effective and less wasteful.

Don't conservative Republicans consider billionaire bankers a protected class?

Let's start with the lifetime pensions and healthcare of all those elected officials. If painful cuts need to be made, why don't we start there?

Fran has an excellent plan. I worked in public schools for several years and saw incredible waste, some of it deliberate. I also saw inept administrators who weren't worthy of a chair to sit on. I saw hundreds of students who were being taught to be wasteful and all too many who expected a free breakfast, which could be tossed in the garbage if the jelly wasn't the right color.

My parents are definitely in the elderly age group, both past 90. My dad works on machinery, grades roads, promotes agriculture preservation and receives a modest retirement income. Not all elderly live privileged entitled lives. The real problem is that we all expect too much and something we should never expect is for government to solve problems we should solve ourselves.

From John C.C.: "Don't conservative Republicans consider billionaire bankers a protected class?"

A wee bit of hypocrisy there, isn't it? Maybe more than a wee bit. It's one of Romney's vulnerabilities in this race and the Obama campaign is hammering away at it.

Actually, Samuelson's column is reasoned and balanced despite an inflammatory story headline designed to lure in readers.

That said, I regard the elderly as a protected class who have earned guarantees of care at a time in their lives when maladies of mind and body over which they have no control have rendered them increasingly at the mercy and good will of the generation they once nurtured.

If we done eliminate entitlements or cut them to the bone, we
might have to ask the 1% to also make sacrifices .. heaven forbid.

Or we might have to stop going to war every time we get the itch
to do so. Yes by all means lets gut Social Security.

The title was a little over stated to (like Craig said) "lure in readers". But, it was insightful for the most part. I like his last point about the Democrats protecting Medicare and Medicaid and Republicans promising no tax increases just to protect their votes. We all need to let go of our sacred cows, stop villainizing the other side, and work for solutions!

John C.C. - I was appreciating your thoughtful counterpoints until you threw in the last line. Now you're no better than the talking heads throwing kool aid at everyone willing to lap it up and regurgitate. Too bad too, since your previous comments were insightful.

@DC
If John cc's last line is "throwing kool aid at everyone that will lap it up and regurgitate it" what exactly is the tired old reference to drinking the cool aid?

Maybe it is time for both sides to set aside tired old tag lines.

Right: penalize the folks who PAID into the system you now call "entitlement", while ignoring the free-loaders who get a lifetime pension of 100 percent of their high salaries and perks for serving in the House or Senate. They also do not pay into social security or pay for health care: we pay it for them. Let us not forget the undocumented "visitors" who get unearned benefits as well.

When you slash and burn those benefits then we can discuss cutting mine.

If the republicans and their commercial bosses could even show us the tiniest indication that they intend to stay around for the future of America we might believe their words. But every thing I see seems to confirm the grab-the-money-and-run attitude of nearly every commercial entity in the United States.

They see the golden goose of the American consumer as either dead or dying and want to squeeze the last be of gold from it’s corpse. To do that they must erase the government protection of the goose by doing away with those nasty regulations. Without government regulation, even the shoddiest product can bring the highest price. And with no taxes to pay, all the gold can go right to their
foreign account.

And as the American world finally burns out, they will simply move to a new game.

The term ‘entitlement’ to cover Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is not a misnomer. They are operated as trust funds when they might have been covered by the Federal income tax the way other countries use a general tax system to pay for equivalent programs. So when you get your weekly paycheck, you see separate withholdings for each. That tells you that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are NOT government handouts. You’re paying for them.

Are these benefits literally entitlements? You doggone right they are. That’s what they were designed to be. So when you see Romney and Ryan eager to start monkeying around with programs Americans depend on, keep a close eye on them.

Yes, my comment about billionaire bankers being a protected class was an emotional knee-jerk reaction and a tired, old tag line. Now I've cooled down. Here is my boring and thoughtful analysis:

Conservatives want to cut entitlement programs while maintaining defense spending and tax cuts for the job-creating rich investors.

Liberals want to raise taxes on the rich and cut defense spending to help pay for entitlement programs.

I'm a moderate who accepts parts of both agendas and would like fight both extremes in order to build a middle ground of consensus.