What Are Entitlements?

What Are “Entitlements”?

By Leon Howard

I think that’s a valid question; we have become an “entitlement society” in the last 50 years and we don’t even know how we got here. If you think about it, we do know how but are ashamed to admit why. We, the people, are the “why” but it’s tough to admit “We went to sleep at the wheel” and allowed the elitists, whose goal is the destruction of the United States, to speak emotional words, backed up by zero facts, to create the entitlement programs!

But they are calling Social Security, Veterans Retirements, and Veteran Disability Retirements “entitlements” and that I totally disagree with! They are not entitlements; entitlements are rewards given for doing nothing! Welfare is an entitlement! Medicaid is an entitlement! “Obamaphones” are an entitlement! Foreign aid is an entitlement and the most unfair of them all because the government is “buying” some hostile nation’s “friendship”.

Social Security, military retirements, and veteran disabilities are bought and paid for up-front; it is not a ‘something-for-nothing’ program like entitlements are. I cannot imagine a higher price being paid than serving in wars you did not declare, protecting your friends and family from harm, with the very likelihood, you will ‘pay the ultimate price’ of your life and, in many cases, losing your limbs or some other disabling injury. “Entitlement”? Absolutely not! Social Security, on the other hand, costs you and your employer money every paycheck; the government doesn’t pay one damned dime into the program but they have been extremely proficient at stealing the money from the Social Security “Trust Fund” over the years for their own little pet projects. They call it a “loan” but the workers putting the money in never approved a “loan” and we wouldn’t have, especially when we found out they wanted to “borrow” the funds at zero interest! I have heard figures of over $30 Trillion that the federal government owes the “Trust Fund” … That should have been our first indication it would be robbed by them … My father told me when I was 15 or 16, “Son, never trust the government.” “Trust Fund” to Congress spells “Piggy Bank” to an overspending Congress!

Medicare isn’t an entitlement either but I think it’s the biggest rip-off every perpetrated on seniors and healthcare providers! Seniors pay a Medicare Premium every month for coverage and then Congress steals as much as it can legislate from the healthcare providers. It isn’t a good deal for seniors healthcare because they dictate what can be covered and what cannot. They are exempted from federal laws but private insurance companies are not exempted. Example: Federal law states that all insurance companies shall pay for all treatments of any condition that is the result of breast cancer. Pretty cut-and-dried wouldn’t you say? My wife suffers from lymphedema, a condition resulting from a surgical mastectomy and radiation treatments for her breast cancer. As soon as she turned 65, her lymphatic massages were no longer covered; Medicare was exempted from complying with the law!

So, although Medicare isn’t an entitlement, it’s not something for the government to be proud of because of the rip-offs to seniors and healthcare providers. I had much better coverage before they forced me onto Medicare!

So when they cut Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits ($500 billion cut in Obamacare to help pay for the non-producers), and Veterans Pay, why didn’t we hear of similar cuts to Welfare and Medicaid? Why is it we never hear of cuts to the real entitlements? Why is it those who pay for benefits must suffer but the non-producers do not?

That’s what I find so amazing: Mr. Ryan touted this great budget deal with Patty, “I get the most pork for my state”, Murray and then it comes out that they didn’t know there was a cut in veterans pay … B--- S---! He wrote the damned thing and he didn’t know it was in there? “Smoke and Mirrors” – Again!

Not to worry though … All entitlements, Social Security, and veterans pay will be a thing of the past in a couple of years because the Congress is spending us into an economic collapse not seen since the Weimar Republic of Germany.