What do you think of when you hear the word “entitlement” or “entitled?” As in, “he’s got this sense of entitlement about him,” right? Someone who feels they have more coming to them than we think they really deserve, right?
Whatever right-wing wordsmith managed, back in the 1980’s apparently, to make the word “entitlements” an accepted shorthand for Social Security and Medicare, long before Frank Luntz started working his devious verbal magic, really pulled off a masterpiece. These days even liberal pundits and President Obama are going to the mat defending what they’ve bizarrely agreed to keep calling “entitlements.” SOME reactionary somewhere, old or dead, is snickering to himself.
This has been bugging me for ten or twenty years, but it’s starting to seem extra objectionable now, as I see these vital American programs, which each of us has PAID FOR and FOUGHT FOR, on the operating table one more time, while the defenders of these programs stupidly use the sneaky vocabulary of the programs’ lifelong foes. For never forget – the rightwing forces of corporate reaction, which completely own the Republican Party and have inroads into the other one, have ALWAYS opposed both Social Security and Medicare from the day they were first dreamed up, even though they spout doublespeak about “saving” the very popular programs from themselves.
Other great minds than my own have been thinking alike about this “entitlement” terminology, but we have obviously not been listened to. Chris Hayes, on MSNBC, urges us to instead say “social insurance” – but I say no, even though it’s accurate, most Americans hate the sound of BOTH socialism and insurance. Ed Schultz had been encouraging everyone to say “earned benefits” which I think is unwieldy – and now Big Fat Ed himself has relapsed and is saying “entitlements” himself. This fellow at Daily Kos, who’s apparently already written the essay I now don’t need to, quotes reformed Republican operative Mike Lofgren on the topic:
You know that Social Security and Medicare are in jeopardy when even Democrats refer to them as entitlements. “Entitlement” has a negative sound in colloquial English: somebody who is “entitled” selfishly claims something he doesn’t really deserve. Why not call them “earned benefits,” which is what they are because we all contribute payroll taxes to fund them? That would never occur to the Democrats. Republicans don’t make that mistake; they are relentlessly on message: it is never the “estate tax,” it is the “death tax.” Heaven forbid that the Walton family should give up one penny of its $86-billion fortune. All of that lucre is necessary to ensure that unions be kept out of Wal-Mart, that women employees not be promoted and that politicians be kept on a short leash.
If anyone listened to me which they don’t, I would say shorten “earned benefits” to just “benefits.” Brevity and punch count. “Earned” is understood. We’re used to the fact that we bargain for benefits when we take a job, or pay for benefits when we buy insurance. Congressional Republicans want to CUT our BENEFITS, which we’ve of course earned and paid for. Congressional Republicans want to have BENEFIT REFORM on the table for slicing and dicing, as a price for any co-operation with our elected President.
You Republicans reading this – not the politicians but the regular folks out there who vote Republican for one reason or another – don’t you be fooled either: It’s also YOUR paid-for benefits they’re trying to strip away. Don’t believe your favorite Washington politicians when they say they’re trying to “save” what they dismissively call your “entitlements” – Social Security not only has nothing to do with the deficit, it will be fine for decades to come with only the most minor tweaks, and Medicare needs only a bit more adjustment. And stop calling them “entitlements!”
* Chairman Vern….-Reich has a beard! We can’t trust him any MORE than Fidel Castro!!
I guess the weekend open thread is over. Sorry.
*Rachel Maddow….does not have facial hair! Reverend Al – does! Lawrence O’Donnell does not. Ed Schulz does not. Michael Savage has facial hair. Frank Lutz did have facial hair….shaved it and got his new gig on Fox.
The list is endless. Grover Norquist…..facial hair for starters.
Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity ……have facial hair whenever the moon is full……..obviously.
Bill Maher and Bill Moyers…have no facial hair! Fred Roggin had facial hair and almost lost his Sports TV show in the process. He luckily took our advice in the nick of time!
Grover Norquist: “stubble-faced dickwad of fiscal doom” as the Rude Pundit called him last week. Time to drown him in his bathtub.
Michael Hiltzik had a similar take here this weekend:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20121202,0,704587.column
But most interesting was a disscussant I heard early this AM on a Pacifica station enroute to the archives in Santa Cruz.
He defined the “Fiscal Cliff” as a product of big business, broken down into components it’s not that bad, but when you lump it all together it looks like an albatross, so nobody eats it alone: Pfizer, Lockheed, Cheveron (tax oil), Wall Street, Blue Cross and the other controllers.
K street even hired a marketing firm (the same one that does Taco Bell) to advise them.
So now, like a scared homeowner in over their head, America is going to negociate the Mortgage (Countrywide/BofA), Volkswagon Credit, Kohls, Macy’s and the property taxes (on the upside down house). And we still have to pay for Baseball League and Dance lessons, let alone grocerys……AAAGGGGHHH it’s all too much.
But, when you explain to princess: Dance is done this year, Junior: Skateboarding is cool, Kohls and Macy’s you are a small part of our debt, play or lose! VW Pay the loan.
So we are left with the big one: The guy who fucked America, and passed on the love juice to me in the form of a non-negociable mortgage. This is where you cut bait. But all is not lost, you bleed this fucker dry and have $30K to pay off bills because you hosed them.
That’s what WASHINGTON should do.
This Fiscal Cliff bullshit is just that. BULLSHIT. sold to us by this likes of Fox, CNN, THE GOP and the every ready to manipulate democratic party. The working man is fucked.
Thats all.
Sorry I missed you last night. I had an early morning drive to beat the traffic, It rained like hell. I am studying 1970’s Scarlett-Fire show by show. Painstaking but necassary.
Give me mine and screw the rest of you.
Its the American way.
What do you think of when you hear the word “entitlement” or “entitled?==== democrats , Ed Schultz had been encouraging everyone to say “earned benefits” when he is not busy calling people sluts . yes earned benefits and illegals are un documented ,
the way i see it, undocumented workers still get real paychecks and pay taxes and pay into Social Security BUT they do not receive benefits since they go back to Mexico and retire there because its cheaper to live. My question is this…if people are not receiving ss benefits but paying in, then where is that extra cash going???? We have a surplus until 2033.
“This has been bugging me for ten or twenty years, but it’s starting to seem extra objectionable now, as I see these vital American programs, which each of us has PAID FOR and FOUGHT FOR, on the operating table one more time, while the defenders of these programs stupidly use the sneaky vocabulary of the programs’ lifelong foes.”
Point of order, none of us has paid for our own social security or medicare benefits. We pay for those currently receiving benefits and we expect that our children, or the children of strangers if we don’t have kids, will pay for ours. In other words, we generally feel entitled to reciprocation.
If we really want to call this “social insurance” or “earned benefits”, then run them like a Health Care Savings Account. Then you’d really have earned benefits.
So you two geniuses….TGO and RC, would you like to pledge that since you find Social Security and Medicare to be be so unsavory that you will deny all of your benefits from the program that you have been paying into?
That’s not what I said.
And, no.
Do you want to sign up for a Health Care Savings Account? Who should?
What happens when you sign up for a HCSA and you get cancer at the end of the second month, and you only have $600 in your account?
Options?
Given the scenario you describe, your out of pocket maximum would kick in around $3k for an individual, at which point your high-deductible plan would pay between 70 and 100% of the cost. If 70%, then it’d be another $3-6k before your annual max kicked in.
So, you’d be covered, but you need to find some money.
I’d consider signing up for a HSA, but it’s not an opportunity in front of me at the moment.
I think younger persons who are healthy ought to consider signing up for an HSA and contribute as much as possible.
hey democrap that is my money where talking when your kind is entitled to take some of my $$$$ that’s called socialism typical ocupoo
Hard to argue with that !
“I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin’ bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter.”
exceptin’ Grating Juan is from Cuba.
“I washn’t born here, an I washn’t raished here, but dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin’ bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter.”
driving back from the concierge physician, listening to bloomberg, heading towards my tenth story office, i realized that i forgot to move the dividends from the hedge fund to the offshore account. turning the bently around, i was able to get to my brokers office before they closed at one-thirty and execute the transfer…now, where were we, oh yeah, all those illegals who want freebies, what is that all about
With regard to Social Security and Medicare recipients, I would highly suspect given the advances in medicine and the cost of medical care most use what they have paid into the trust funds within 5 years. Therefore, is accurate to call someone who paid into a system but takes our more from it, earned benefit or entitlement.
The last four years, social security disability claims have gone up, reportedly over 400%. Does this mean medical advances in identifying disabilities or does it mean a free paycheck because one’s asthmatic, one decided to do drugs or alcohol and mess up their body or mind, one’s has mood swings or has constant pain(which probably is because of that extra 100 lbs and immobility) while couch surfing, covering a diagnosed ADHD child who 20 years ago would have been portrayed as being a kid. Too many people are jumping on the free taxpayer boat, some have valid reason, others had bad habits.
We are turning into a society with a government who sole purpose is to have 50% of the employed taking care of the other 50% of the population. Sooner or later, people are going to give up and join those on the public dole or say enough is enough.
Jose,
Have you applied for SSD benefits??? Do you personally know anyone receiving benefits for the ailments you described? Me thinks you are talking out of your butt. I know people who have life threatening illnesses and cannot get help because of the red tape, which in my opinion is there hoping people will die before collecting anything.
This is not an entitlement issue…its called humanitarian…all people deserve healthcare and food. Not everyone gets sick from bad habits…there is enough pollution in our environment to kill all of us off…not to mention the frankenfoods!
There is a better term than “benefits,” Vern. You’re really talking about “investments” in society. I’d love to see those bastards talking about cutting “investments.” 🙂
jose has it right – we got makers & takers.- something has to give ……
Now about the word games. I know what you mean – like taxes have become “revenue” and drunken spending has become “investments” – yeah, I know what you mean.
However, one is “entitled” to his/her earned benefit. That makes sense.
“I washn’t born here, an I washn’t raished here, but dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin’ bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter.”
Please translate the above into English – thanks.
Yeah, that’s pretty much the request we have of The Grating Juan after each of his comments.
When you collect more than you paid in, it is an entitlement.
Is a pension an entitlement? Is an insurance payoff? A jackpot payoff?