[quote]rainjack wrote:
If I am not mistaken, you are in favor of government sponsored, “free” health care - no?
How do you reconcile being in favor of the largest gov’t handout possible, and saying you are not in favor of entitlement programs?
If I am wrong - I apologize, but I’m pretty sure you were/are against privatizing Soc Sec, and in favor of free health care. [/quote]
I’m not sure I voiced much about social security. I might even be against privatizing it, but something I did suggest, if you remember, is that it could be ever so slightly de-indexed from inflation so that over the course of a generation or two that it would simply become irrelevant.
That would imply complete elimination, but over time instead of all at once. Perhaps the situation is getting too dire to be able to use such a strategy now.
I live in it, free health care, and it has it’s ups and downs. As something that is “free” it is indeed an entitlement and that leads to all kinds of abuse. I don’t like the absolute entitlement aspect of it at all.
However, and this is where the much hated thinking tree comes into play, I think you can greatly improve things by removing the entitlement aspect. Just like with the social security aspect I’d prefer to move slowly in an appropriate direction instead of immediately imposing an ideological solution.
Perhaps, issue an “invoice” based on our equivalent of a social security number. At year end, when you file your taxes, the “bills” are waived to some degree if your income is low enough. I know, a pain in the ass, administration, etc, etc, but it’s already being tracked to this degree and it stops people from thinking it is “free”.
So, that would be a baby step… but one that could possibly start saving us an assload of money. Emergency services are the most expensive and the ones that everyone uses because they are conveniently available 24x7.
Honestly though, and here’s ammo for you if you want to play the black and white game, I also don’t think that we need to live our lives as a health lottery. I’d like to find a way to ensure that health care is available to those that need it, though “free” is an extreme that I’m not in favor of.
Anyway, similarly, I’m strongly in favor of workfare instead of welfare. It’s offensive that people start to feel entitled to sit on their asses, have babies, and put the bill in my pocket. Put up a day care and force these people to break rocks all day for minimum wage or less. I don’t care what the work is, but no work, no pay.
Again, I know it’s a “program”, but it’s one that pushes people away instead of fostering entitlement. Entitlement is a huge mistake and needs to be avoided at all costs. After that we can fight about whether programs should even exist at all.
I want self-limiting programs and “just enough” government, as opposed to big nanny-state government looking after everything. I’ve been reading some liberal party material here where I live and the grassroots people preface all their statements with “the government should do this” and “the government should do that” and it disgusts me.
Unfortunately, as usual, I fall in the middle, which seems to be the thinking-tree way.
