Paul Ryan's attempt for an adult conversation on debt & entitlement reform

[NYSEGOP]

Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan 2012!

[MsZeitgeist85]

It is about time someone called this Randroid on his plan to butcher Medicare.

[killerbee2k]

At 3:22 what a blatant disgusting lie she spews out. Politicians social security is as worse as unemployed or even median income earner? What an insane statement. I guess its the same in norway too then. After 8 years in parliament the politicians can retire with highest pension bracket at age 28 if they want too, so I can do this too? No wait I cant because I'm just a regular joe and not a politician. I hate these liberal politicians who lies trying to identify with normal citizens

[killerbee2k]

I respect Paul Ryan so much, best politician I have seen in my lifetime

[tjbollman1]

Shut the hell up Debbie! You kissed Baracks ass from day one to get perks. You got your chair, but don;t expect the people NOT to see through you. You'll be gone when Barack is.

[killerbee2k]

@tjbollman1 Yeah she will be gone, but with the best social security the country has to offer. fucking scammer

[tjbollman1]

@killerbee2k I with you bee; and yes she is caught redhanded there...but did the get called on it by superLib Blitzer? NOPE..how about MSMedia? NOPE...they only cover for the constant Lib Lies. Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams should be burning in hell for how they help lead this country down the Commie Path....but Oprah loves them so they are safe. Wasserman=Shultz is truly one of the biggest liars and most repulsive women in politics. I hate Kiss-assers and she embarrasses herself doing it.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi So you made major cuts were any of them to your income or just to the number of workers you employed. The programs are not worthless. They feed, house, and clothe children in families where businessmen fire employees so they can continue to make the same amount of money they did yesterday even when the economy is bad. You are part of the problem in this country not part of the solution.

[2Tellthetruth]

Gee, the liberals chose her to represent them? Well that says it all. Time for change!

[edoyle7]

What a lying loser, she should kill herself.

[tjbollman1]

@edoyle7 Really she is absolutely repulsive!

[0HippyHunter0]

Wasserman-Schultz is a disaster.

[ganteng122]

xcbhsdbgsz

[RagnarOdinsson]

Pull the rug out from under grandma....that is all they have, no plan no nothing. Just scare tactics just like the BS debt limit. I can't wait for the Obama jobs package! I am so excited. Not one elected official had anything to do with writing it, just like the HC law, I bet it's just great!!! More government hand out jobs, where white males need not apply.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi Next we will shut down the SPA for 10 days. It markets electric power to nearly 500 wholesale customers, including electrical cooperatives, government-operated electric distributors, and investor-owned utilities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Illinois. I vote we just shut that down and see who is really ready to ditch the federal government then.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi I think we could change a lot of people's minds if we just shutdown the Bonneville Power Administration. The BPA has more than 15,000 miles (24,000 km) of electrical lines and 300 substations in the Pacific Northwest and controls approximately 75 percent of the high-voltage (230 kV and higher) transmission capacity in the region. How about we shut that down for 10 days thereby leaving most of the Pacific Northwest and California without power.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi All these arrogant jerks that want to gut the federal government could sit in their houses without electricity, drinking unsanitary water because the water plants would not actually be cleaning the water without power, and eat their stored K-Rats and MREs because there would be no food going anywhere. After the 60 days is over I guarantee all of you that support them would have a brand new perspective about the federal government. Yes it needs reform but most importantly we need jobs

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi Before you decide to go gutting the government you might actually want to know how much of your life is impacted by federal programs. Of course personally I think that they just need to totally shut down the federal government for 60 days. It would teach people a lesson when their electricity went off, the dams and locks that control the navigation on the rivers that allow so much stuff to be carried by boat inland from the ports stopped working, and the trucking industry shut down.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi Do you live in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California? If you do then very likely you get your electricity from a company buying from the DOE through Bonneville Power courtesy of FDR and the federal government. Do you live in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky? Same story. All the other states are covered by transmission lines from the SE & NW owned by the DOE.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi As I stated before the problem is the disparity between the wealthy and the poor and the quality of education that kids get based on the location and financial influence of the community. Inner city schools can barely afford books while suburban schools in the exact same school system have computers in every classroom. We have 2 schools in our district with a computer in every classroom but one of them also has 2 labs with 30 computers per lab while the other has no labs.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi Great so you work 4 jobs and never have time to spend with your kids so they can go to private school. I went to private school part of life. I went to public school part of my life. The education I got at both were about equal. However, I was lucky. I went to suburban school with a strong alumni group that had kids in the school so there was an influx of parental money from the affluent community in which I lived. 5 miles down the road was a school that could barely afford books.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi It is not about the money nearly as much as it is about the required education. The UK uses a series of exit exams before a diploma is issued. However, that would only lead to teachers teaching the tests as we have seen in the NCLB test dishonesty scandal. Japan, our real global innovation competitor, has a required national curriculum. Because we are so busy defending so called states rights we are losing the global race because of our lack of standardized education.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi And that is the problem That school does one thing and a different school does something different. We are like 50 little countries and every one has a different educational standard. However, the uneducated of every state are supported by the welfare of the general state. If the education was standardized then we would have fewer uneducated people. We are competing with countries where the educational standard is standardized across the entire country.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi The UK does this by a testing system but we have seen in America that means the lazy dishonest school systems merely teach the tests. The disparity between schools within the very same school districts and the disparity between one school district to another within the same state means some kids can compete and others can't. We will always have poor if we keep creating them. Education is the most important thing. It is where we should spend the most money and have the most uniformity

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi We need a uniformed diploma system and then allow the states and local districts to implement other types of diplomas as they see fit. However, we need a uniformed system. We are greatly disadvantaged in world because one kid might get a good education and another in a school 5 miles away might not. Our kids cannot compete in a global economy like that. Every other country has a uniformed educational system.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi I do not even want to hear the crap about the department of education. If anything it needs to take control of the schools completely because we have high school graduates that can't read coming out of some schools and others in the same state are graduating with high honors and getting college scholarships to ivy league colleges. The states are doing a really bad job managing their schools when they can't even get uniform funding for their schools. It is a problem in 94% of our states

[EricSkaterdude1]

Wasserman = a.k.a. OBNOXIOUS. Enough said.

[Spydyee2]

In response to the "Deport Illegals" statement generally I agree with you but the cost to actually do that is prohibitive since we have as many in the country as we do now. We could spend a trillion dollars and not find them all without passing laws that infringe on the 4th amendment rights of out legal citizens.

2 part solution:

1.open immigration centers again for processing all entries and secure the physical borders

2. (accept the fact we screwed up) let the ones that are here stay

[Spydyee2]

Of course there could be a compromise on that where all the doctors get paid by the government and then people that want private insurance could let the insurance companies cover them and pay the government. The insurance companies would not cover anything the government covered but would cover things the government elected to not cover. You know things like elective or experimental treatments. People that wanted those things could buy the coverage but the basics would be covered.

[Spydyee2]

I hate the idea of the fed dumping regulations that they are not going to fund so my opinion is that we need to fund the regs too. Of course I am a fan of a single payer healthcare system between the patient and the doctor. I do not advocate socialized medicine like in the UK where all the medical facilities are owned by the government but I do think that a single payer system where all funding of healthcare is handled by a single payer is better.

[Spydyee2]

Uniformity in the requirements would stop this kind of differentiation in care for the most needy. Friends of min in Alabama are stressed out and on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds just to deal with their kids. I would be too without all the help I get. Not to mention all the jobs our program creates within the community. However, Many states have nothing like what we have here in NC. The kids suffer, people lose the freedom to choose where they live, it is not good.

[Spydyee2]

Some things need to be either federalized or federally mandated better than what they are. I would love to go home to live near my mom and my husband's mom but there are no support programs for my Autistic kids in Alabama NONE I cannot leave the sate I am in because we have the 2nd best support system in the country and the best is even farther away. My kids need extra help. I need extra help with them Our state has chosen to use federal money in a good way for MR/DD care. Alabama has not.

[Spydyee2]

This method of data handling would also allow for ease of tracking welfare recipients for fraud. Right now it is not a real time check for whether a person presenting themselves for food stamps is actually receiving income according to IRS and SSA records. The laws have been passed allowing them to do the verifications but the ability to actually do them is human labor intensive because the various computer systems are unable to communicate with one another. Fix this problem and others like it

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi How about instead of gutting the social programs we start by reducing wasteful duplication of services in government. A perfect example is the fact that we about 22 data centers when 4 would do the job but every department has their own instead of a centralized one that could manage data for all the different departments. 4 across the 4 time zones to reduce the chances that a natural disaster takes them all down at once.

[Spydyee2]

@gcsecsi We are not talking about entitlement programs like welfare. Social Security and Medicare are things every working American pays for how may I ask is it wrong for them to want to actually get paid. If the rest of the government wasn't constantly borrowing from these programs to pay for unfunded wars, bridges to nowhere, and healthcare and raises for dysfunctional representatives we could easily afford Medicare and Social Security.

[Spydyee2]

They Heathccare reform bill does latch on to current medicare and medicaid funds but the problem is that most people including some of these Washington actuaries do not realize that medicare and medicaid will be processed through this new system exclusively in numerous states as this transition occurs. This means that part of the money will be used by the new system and part by the old system. Ryan means well but he is anti-government and we see how well wall street handles things Greed Rules.

[Spydyee2]

She is right. Wall Street is far too risky. If my mom had not had Social Security she would not have any retirement money because she lost most of her 401K to the Stock Market. Social Security is not something Wall street needs to get their hands on under any circumstances at all ever. I am an independent but that is something i will not support or help to elect any one who does support it.

[WILCOX1948]

SHE IS THE HEAD OF THE DNC ???

WHAT A WIN FOR RATIONAL AMERICANS OF EITHER PARTY.

[Spydyee2]

@GOPkicksbutt Brilliant idea lets allow the companies to make more money and pay their workers less. These corporations are posting record profits so why should their workers sacrifice pay or benefits? I'll tell you why . They need to do this so the investors in the companies and the CEO can get richer. These low-end millionare TEAParty leaders like the title of being a millionaire and they want to break the American worker down to nothing so they can get rich off the backs of the workers. BS!

[TheJasonDR]

that lady is a lying bitch

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR really Why? Because she is a democrat ? What specifically did she lie about?

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 well Democrats do find themselves lying alot ... I find it very difficult to believe that the democratic party continues to exist .....I mean black people in poverty keep the democratic party alive...voting blindingly .....for the party that wanted to keep them as slaves HA Ironic... and yet they follow the lie that Republicans are racist ...THE party that was created to free them .....Ha black people deserve to be miserable under democratic control HA they are keeping themselves poor

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR The African American community knows the history of the Democratic party very well. They are also aware that the republican party of today is one that Eisenhower would disown. SO if the republicans want the African American Vote back and the vote of the poor whites then they need to be Eisenhower's Republican Party not the TEA Party. Otherwise that vote will go to the Democrats. I am an Independent and I can tell you right now I am sick of both of the parties.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 ....so the Tea party ...is like what of lower class than you or something....wow what an Elitist view...Tea Party is only about Fiscal Responsibility .thats it .. you being an Independent like me but you consider yourself ...something of higher value than the Tea party.... which is cool for you if it makes you feel good ....and my parents were immigrants and today my parents are wealthy but growing up poor I can recall the suffering black community which is in my opinion a sad story

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR The TEA Partyis not only about fiscal responsibilty they are about gutting the government no matter who gets hurt int he process. the fact that the United States of America is already one of the lowest of the developed nations for general child well-being is bad. The fac that the TEA Party wants to gut the programs that keep us from being ranked at the same level as developing nations and third world countries is a disgrace.

[Spydyee2]

I have no idea where you get that I feel superior to them except that I hold myself to a higher standard of human compassion and strive to actually live by the scriptures that I profess to believe in. Matthew 25: 31-46, Mark 12: 30-31, and Mark 12:41-44. I am really tired of all of these alleged Christians, ultra right wing, slash and burn, politicians that care nothing for human beings. I am also sick of the lies they tell. I am equally as sick of the ultra left wing liberals too.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 exactly .....thats the tea party .....angry at both

[vechorik]

Social Security is not solvent. New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security’s much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well. It's time to REFORM ALL GOVERNMENT ASSISTANT PROGRAMS NOW -- ELSE WE LOSE THEM! How about the first step to get millionaires off SS and Medicare? And I'm GOP!

[TheJasonDR]

@vechorik you know whats funny ......we dont have the soviet union anymore ......that means we are in danger of socialism ..... I mean we call ourselves a capitalist society ......but we have many socialist things in our country that are completely failing .....like education

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR The Soviet Union was not actually a pure socialistic society. They were a communistic society and there is a difference. The problem is that people in the US have been so brainwashed by the government propaganda of the Cold War that I doubt you can find me more than 10 people in the entire country that can tell you the difference between pure socialism, democratic socialism, and communism. If people understood the difference we would quickly become a democratic socialist country.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR The idea of being able to move from one state to the other and have your medical care, educational standards, homeschooling laws, and special programs like the services available for my Autistic kids be the same regardless of what state I move to would mean my husband and I could move to where he could find work. he has been out of work for about 3 years and there are no jobs in his field where we live. We can't move where the jobs are because there are no services for our kids.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR We can't move because of the differences in the educational system and the homeschooling laws. So we are stuck where we can get services for our kids which means we are stuck on welfare since he is unemployed and cannot find work. We could be off of welfare if we could go back to my mom's farm but there are no services for my kids and when I talked with The ARC in that state and explained all the services I get for my kids they told me, "DO NOT MOVE HERE!"

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR These types of things need to be uniform nationwide. Otherwise we are 50 separate little countries most of which are no better than the average 3rd world country in terms of human rights and economic development if you take all the federally funded projects away. Most of the west would be without electricity. A huge portion of the south would have no power. My mom and my mother-in-law just got decent drinking water in their homes 4 months ago. My M-I-L had brown mineral water.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR 6 months ago the little town they live near got a federal grant to finally bring them clean drinking water in 2011. If Alabama did not get help from the federal government many areas would be as bad if not worse than most 3rd world countries. I don't know where you live but let me tell you that the rural south has a serious problem. We have entire subdivisions that are on builder installed community wells and septic tanks because the local govts can't afford water and sewer systems.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 thats there problem

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR really? So your opinion is that you have a right to have clean water but no one else does? That is a pretty arrogant perspective. Do you use electricity in this country? There is not a single state that is not in some way dependent on a federally owned electricity producer or distributor right now. You rally have no idea how dependent your lifestyle is on the federal government do You? You just regurgitate the crap you hear without even realizing what effect it would have.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR What state do you live in? I will be glad to tell you exactly how much of your lifestyle including the internet you enjoy being on is funded by the US government. Yes, just in case you missed that in your Intro to computers class The World Wide Web is hosted on the Internet which began as a US DOD project and the new upgraded US backbone was funded by the National Science Foundation. So again I ask, "What state are you in?"

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR And No my friend that is your problem too. When people look around them and see that others are living far above their standard of living off the backs of those very same people it tends to lead to revolutions and when that happens there will be no state in the union safe and your precious self centered lifestyle will change. I am pretty sure that Mohammad Qaddafi had your attitude as he lived the high life because Daddy was stripping the wealth of Libya for himself and his family.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Remember this:

The very fact that the concept "anti-American" can exist -- forget the way it's used -- exhibits a totalitarian streak that's pretty dramatic. That concept, anti-Americanism -- the only real counterpart to it in the modern world is anti-Sovietism. In the Soviet Union, the worst crime was to be anti-Soviet. That's the hallmark of a totalitarian society, to have concepts like anti-Sovietism or anti-Americanism.

Think about that the next time you listen to politicians.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR You might want to read Noam Chomsky's "Class Warfare" It might just enlighten you. Remember it was the massive difference in the economic status of the different classes in Russia that led to the rise of Lenin and Stalin. It was the massive difference in wealth held by the German Jews and the German peasants that led to the rise of Hitler. People will only tolerate oppression so long before they get rid of the oppressors. Here it is the corporations and their puppets.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 but this is the US ..........largest Economy .........not an oppressive regime ......we have a small working class and a large middle class you idiot .....im Hispanic.....and I grew up in the working class but now that im in my late adolescents we are in the middle class .......its only black people in the working class

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Are you really that naive My kids are all white and they are all part of the working class. My oldest works 40 hours a week at McDonalds so she can feed her 3 kids. The next son down is disabled and has a child. He is a full time college student on financial aid. My third child is a parent of a child and works for Cracker Barrell. The mother works part time at temp jobs. That son is also a full time student on financial aid.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR My middle daughter is the wife of a minister and not one of those million dollar versions. They get food stamps since the baby was born and he has massive student loans and so does she. They will eventually be more than working class but not right now. My husband and I are both in college. I am 49 and have been working class all of my adult life. I was upper middle class as a child. DO NOT believe that all working class and welfare recipients are black or lazy.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR I am a student raising 3 disabled kids. Two of them get SSI disability because they are 10 and 8, autistic and non-verbal. We get section 8 housing vouchers, Pell Grants for our educations, food stamps to feed our kids, and my 17 year old is in college already. He has a 3.87 GPA. I have a 3.21 GPA while raising 3 kids and going to school. My husband's working class job got shipped overseas 3 years ago. We are white, poor courtesy of Free Trade, and working class.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Our economy is falling apart courtesy of Free Trade Agreements. I have no problem with us raising the quality of life in other countries but when we came up with this idea we needed to have a functional plan to create jobs for the people whose jobs went away. People like me and my husband. I used to work in a Fruit of the Loom plant it's gone. The jobs are gone. My husband's family lost their jobs in the sock factories when they went to Guatemala.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Only recently have they cleared the hurdle of getting off of welfare completely. The only reason that happened is because their kids got old enough to pick up part time jobs. College will not be happening for them any time in the near future. They will be working class. Again we are all white. You need to go down south where the majority of the people are both white and working class. I don't know where you are from but you are so uneducated about the rest of America

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Kinda funny how you went from the working class to the middle class. What changed in your financial situation? Better jobs or did the "middle class" level drop to include you. Be careful who you call an idiot. I may be poor but I am a member of MENSA. Lack of a college education does not make me stupid. The only reason we have a smaller working class is because we have a higher unemployment rate due to our jobs going away. The "middle class" definition has changed.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Once I complete my college I will be part of that upper class that makes enough to get taxed more. I will willingly pay more taxes to help people like me make that step up. It is so selfish of the people who make it to forget from whence they came. I won't. I am grateful for all the help that I have gotten and when I get there I will not forget. You see I don't require fancy houses, cars, or money. I have wonderful children, a fabulous husband, and lots of love. Money can't buy that.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 your so dumb how does higher taxes help people get up the ladder

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Through Pell Grants which never have to be paid back, student loans that do not have to get paid back until after they graduate, Food Stamps to feed them while they get an education, Section 8 Housing vouchers to keep a roof over their heads, child care vouchers so their kids can be cared for while they are in school all of which I paid for by my tax money. Then they will get jobs, pay taxes , and in the process help someone else.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR In response to the "dumb" remark all I have to say is MENSA Genius level IQ and the ability to understand the history of this country and the fact that the TEA Party is going to destroy the economy because they want to do the exact same thing President Hoover did right after the 1929 stock market crash and that will lead to another depression. One of the actions that needs to be taken has been labeled as treasonous by the TEA Party nutbag Rick Perry.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 .....if your against shrinking the Govt then your for growing the Govt

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR It is not a all or nothing situation. A perfect example is the student loan restructuring where student loans are getting restructured in a way that reduces the amount the government is using to manage those loans, The money saved through restructuring is being put into the funds to help improve Pell Grants since they no longer cover most college tuition and books

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Another way we can reduce federal spending and clean up fraud in our welfare systems is to consolidate the data management into a central office. Right now every agency has their own data center or more. 22+ nationwide. We need exactly four in the continental US, one in HI and one in AK. This would allow for improved communication between the various offices so we could eliminate people winning the lottery and still collecting food stamps.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Yes that actually happened. A man won $2 million in the lottery. The IRS knew he won the money but the local food stamp office did not. He collected food stamps while being a millionaire. We do not need to gut the programs but wee need to do a little liposuction on the management styles being used. This may take some initial investments but ultimately it is worth the investment in order to streamline the government.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR I am against gutting social programs. I am not against providing infrastructure like the DOE power grid does. We need to do the same with FIOS and high speed electric rail nationwide. I am for giving the fed govt a makeover by cutting duplication of services like IT, restructuring the military and employing their skills for domestic projects during peacetime, providing a single payer healthcare system, and fixing our educational system so our graduate are competitive globally.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 ..... then move to cuba where there are many social services ....

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Nope but I will move to France if the presidency of this country winds up in the hands of a TEA Party Nut! Thye have lots of social programs too and I will enjoy living there knowing that when I go to work at some US based corporation that YOU will be helping to pay for my healthcare benefits, 35 hour work week, and my kids free college education.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Yep i will enjoy my new country and all the benefits it makes the US based corporation I work for give to me and the fact that because the US government allows that company to use those expenses as tax deductions here in the US that you have to pay more in taxes which in a convoluted sort of way means that you are paying for my kids to get a free education and me to have healthcare. France is my choice! Je parle français seulement un peu, mais je suis un rapide l'apprenant.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 yelp ....a centralized govt...is definitively good ....just like china...I still dont understand how building roads can land people jobs

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR How do you think the roads get built? They do not just magically build themselves. we need to build roads, high speed passenger rail, FIOS to the door of every home, and a centralized funding system for schools so that all schools are equally funded regardless of the neighborhood.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Right now property taxes are still the primary source of income for school systems nationwide so schools in areas where the property taxes are low are garbage and less than 2 miles away you can have a school that is the exact opposite because it is funded from property taxes that are higher because of the location. That is crap. No kid should be denied a quality education because of where his parents decide to or can afford to live.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 bad management

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR What is bad management? My husband's job going overseas? We were not on welfare until the textile/clothing manufacturing in this country was shipped overseas at the behest of the multinational corporations that wanted to go from making a 200% profit on their items to a 2000% profit on their items. Have you seen a single textile manufacturer lower prices on their merchandise because they cut their manufacturing costs by shipping jobs overseas?

[Spydyee2]

@vechorik Social Security which is different from SSDI is solvent SSDI is not solvent and most of that is due to the trust fund being invested into T-Bills. People have no idea how social security actually works. There are 3 distinct funds SS Retirement SSDI and SSI. SSDI hits insolvency in 2014. SSI hits insolvency in 2016 based on the current rate of new applications. SSI is solvent but if we do not get more people working soon could decline rapidly. The trust funds have to get out of T-Bills

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR No the TEA Party is just a bunch of religious right zealots that make Islamic radicals look sane. At least that is all they have managed to field as candidates. If there is better out there then the TEA Party needs to step up their game leave the GOP and show the best they have.

[stringlov]

The People Need The Same, Health Care, As The People Thay Elect.......

[ttgator2003]

RYAN THINKS THAT WORKING PEOPLE AND THE POOR HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY AND THE RICH HAVE TOO LITTLE!

[macdaddymomma]

*smug laugh* God, I Love This Guy!

[bayknight20]

How can anyone vote for a woman with a 1979 hairstyle in the year 2000 whatever?

[Spydyee2]

@bayknight20 How can anyone that doesn't know the year know what the latest hairstyles are and what difference does her hairstyle make on her ability to represent the will of her constituents? Is that really what is important? This young woman was making some very good points about Wall Street here and the only thing you could say was something about her hair.

[Spydyee2]

@Vetwolf13 Please stop this type of rhetoric it is counter productive. If they lose everything then so does every other person and no one will be happy. Do you have a solution? Do you have an idea? Can you suggest a way to stop our deficit spending, clean up government waste, and come up with a taxation system that is both fair and equitable and pays the bills? If not then this type of hateful rhetoric is counterproductive and bad for America in general. I would love to hear your ideas.

[wotrwokr]

well.... there's at least ONE honest man in washington dc (i'm sure there are a few more). there is hope......... for a change at least i can believe in. go paul ryan

[nmbanana]

look at debbie, she disapproves of the idea of saving money, silly little girl

[Spydyee2]

@nmbanana No she disapproves of leaving our senior citizens in the position my mother would have been in if Social Security did not exist. My mom had a 401K through her company. She lost 87% of her retirement money in the stock market crash at the beginning of the whole banking crisis.

[Spydyee2]

@nmbanana My mom was forced into and early retirement by her company because they outsourced her job to India. She would have already run out of money (she still has a house payment and a car payment) if she was dependent on the remains of her 401K. I can't afford to help her because I have three children at home two of which are severe and profoundly Autistic. After paying into the system for over 30 years she has a right to get ehr money back out of the system. That is not welfare!

[BillyBawb]

F%^& you, Debbie. If we had f^&*ing put the excesses of SS and Medicare into the stock market instead of pissing it away into the black hole of treasury bonds maybe the program would be self-sustaining. There ARE pension systems out there in the stock market that have survived the recession.

[Spydyee2]

@BillyBawb If it had been in the stock market it would have been lost just like my mom's 401K was lost. Where were you during the stock market crash of 2008/2009? Have you ever read about the stock market crash of 1929. The aftermath of that crash was the very reason FDR created Social Security.

[Spydyee2]

A part of a discussion between FDR and Luther Gulick, one of his advisers as found in a memorandum written by Gulek.

Gulick: In the course of this discussion I raised the question of the ultimate abandonment the pay roll taxes in connection with old age security and unemployment relief in the event of another period of depression. I suggested that it had been a mistake to levy these taxes in the 1930’s when the social security program was originally adopted.

[Spydyee2]

FDR: FDR said, “I guess you’re right on the economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those pay roll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program. Those taxes aren’t a matter of economics, they’re straight politics.”

[Spydyee2]

FDR also mentioned the psychological effect of contributions in destroying the “relief attitude.”

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 FDR is americas little dictator ...... he did not want to leave office .......kinda frighting..... 

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Hello he was not a dictator He was freely elected 4 times and there was no LAW preventing that from happening. It was tradition not law. The people of this country loved him and they loved the fact that they went from starving back to a state for relative prosperity under his administration which fought for the common man against the corporations.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR If you want to know what good Roosevelt did you have but to look at the number of people out of power when the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant went down in the wake of the April tornadoes in Alabama. The plant is run by TVA a Roosevelt creation. You go out west and ask the people served by Bonneville Power how they would feel about no having power or paying twice as much for it as they do. Another FDR program.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 yeah FDR programs are now destroying the US .......it is always a democrat behind the curtain....like charlie Wilson.....and the mujahadin in Afghanistan

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR RIGHT What is destroying America is that the Republicans have unleashed the uncontrollable greed of Wall Street to control everything and the greedy corporations do not care about human beings at all and our constitution does not say we the corporations it says we the people. Social Security was self sufficient until it's trust fund was raided so it is not destroying anything. TVA, Bonneville Power, and all his other DOE power groups provide electricity where the power cos. refused

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR You are far too young to actually know what it was like in those days. Have you actually had a conversation in your life with a single person that lived when Hoover was president. Have you ever talked with them about what it was like after FDR became president. I have. My grandfather lived through the Great Depression and he had nothing but the highest of praise for "Mr. Roosevelt" who got electricity to his farm and helped his family have a better life.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR What you are is a child of the me me me generation. I have kids older than you and a son your age and most of their friends sound just like you. I raised my kids to care about those less fortunate than them and to serve their fellow man so they are different from their friends but the me me me generation is so self -centered and greedy that it is pathetic. Your day will come when you have to be dependent on someone else I just hope your kids are better than you.

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR Where do you get this total lack of correct information. Never mind I know where. Fox News and our poor public education system. The majority of the programs implemented by Roosevelt that still exist today are the DOE power companies like TVA and Bonneville Power that provide electricity to rural areas of the country that the larger companies would not without charging the people close to 3 times what others paid. Now they sell power to those same power companies and small co-ops.

[TheJasonDR]

@Spydyee2 ...well public education in the US sucks because of the fundamental ...ideology socialism vs capitalistic .....if education was privatized and the govt started building schools everywhere .....

[Spydyee2]

@TheJasonDR If Mr. Roosevelt had lived we would have a functional healthcare program. After Mr. Roosevelt died in office Truman took over and most of Roosevelt's advisers went to the UK and helped them set up Mr. Roosevelt's healthcare plan along with a few modifications by their leaders and it is still running today. It has changed over time and will likely have to make more changes but every single person in the UK has access to healthcare something we cannot say. Too bad FDR died when he did

[dpalmacci]

The Two Pauls for VP and Pres 2012: Paul Ryan and Ron Paul!!!

[MrDavinkoo]

Look at the hate in her eyes when she speaks. Good grief!

[Spydyee2]

@MrDavinkoo That is not hate. That is frustration with the lack of concern for other human beings that is constantly shown by the republicans and in particular the TEA Party members. They want to slash and hack programs that their parents have paid into for years and are expecting to have to live on and I can guarantee that if they became disabled early that they would be the first in line with their hand out to the Social Security administration to collect their SSDI.

[myHome109]

Please tell Debbie to stop raiding Social Security for those government workers who opted out of paying FICA taxes.

[Spydyee2]

@myHome109 Please elaborate?

[grey3710]

It is not good enough for the American people because the welfare state supporters believe that we average Americans are to dumb to know what is best for ourselves.

[Spydyee2]

@grey3710 No they want to protect you from the corporate greed of Wall street. My mom would be on the street and starving at 70 right now if she had to depend on her 401K because of the stock market crash right before all the bank bailouts. her company's safest 401K investment package lost 87% of its value and at that very moment her company forced her into early retirement so they could outsource her job to India. Without Social Security she would be homeless.

[TaoOfOkada]

Sorry toots, but the American people didn't expect this kind of change when they stupidly elected our big eared Prez. into office. She has the balls to stand there and tell us what change we don't want when her idea of what we did want is so skewed...hilarious! Too bad our only choices were McCain and Obama. I wrote in Ron Paul. 

[mikebgood]

@TaoOfOkada: I could not agree more. Although I voted for Bob Barr.

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada Speak for yourself Many of us do want this type of change. We do want a single payer healthcare system. We do want a safer restructured Social Security system that is still in the hands of the government rather than Wall Street greed. We do want the government to regulate the corporate greed that is killing our country. We at least want the same level of regulation as other major countries have. However, we want the waste cleaned up in realistic ways.

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 If you watch the video again you'll see that I not only speak for myself but also for about 61% of the country. And there are some fundamental points you fail to realize. 1. We have corporatism not because of regulation. Corporatism (fascism) is a function of big govt., you know, the kind of govt you want. 2. We would have enough to cover SS, Medicare/caid if we didn't print, borrow, and spend like we do.

Entitlements aren't the problem, it's big govt spending.

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada Corporatism is not a product of big government It is a product of deregulation where they can do whatever they want without any consequences. I am 49 years old and I have watched corporate America be loosed to run amuck and destroy our economy and they have. Government has the responsibility to provide for the general welfare of the people and you don't do that by letting the corporations do whatever they want.

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 General welfare doesn't mean a single payer system. It means you have a right to your life, your property, and your liberty. I wholeheartedly agree with you that corporate America has screwed us. But you have to admit our govt is in bed with corporations. Who did the bailouts benefit? Corporations. If the govt was limited as is suggested by the Constitution, it wouldn't be that way.

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada Well that is a matter of perspective. The bank bailouts only benefited the banks. The auto bailout kept workers employed that would have been laid off but believe me the CEOs certainly did not make any sacrifices in this process either. Even Canada joined in to help the automakers since GM and Chrysler have plants in Canada too. We have one of the lowest rankings in among the developed nations for general child well-being according to UNICEF (general welfare of our most vulnerable)

[Spydyee2]

Another thing that is killing our economy is healthcare and like I stated I am not for socialized medicine like the UK has however, a single payer system will take the insurance corporations out of financing healthcare expenses. After all every corporation is out to make a profit and healthcare has more profiteers involved in it than any other single "industry" out there and that is why it needs to stop being an "industry"

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada Are you aware that in the world of healthcare for may years that hospitals considered nursing service to be a liability of the hospital? Then some rocket scientist decided that they could find a way to log every time a nurse entered a room on a computer so that nursing service ceased to be a liability. Now not only do they log every entry but part of your care that used to be included in your room rates for in patient hospitalization is now billed on a actual usage basis.

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 I work in healthcare, not all hospitals do this but many do as you pointed out. I don't see the correlation between nurses being tracked equals a non-liability. Healthcare workers are still responsible for the care of their patients regardless of whether or not their tracked.

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada It is a money issue. Hospitals used to take a loss on nursing care. Foundations would subsidize major purchases and it was a very "socialist" approach. The overall operating cost of the hospital was divided evenly to everyone in the form of a bed rate and the foundations bought big stuff because of the philanthropic giving to them. Hospitals were not geared to make money just to operate in the black.

[Spydyee2]

Now they are all about profits. They charge for every piddling little thing and healthcare costs to patients has skyrocketed and the for profit insurance companies are regulating healthcare in order to maintain their profit margin. By tracking nursing service they can charge for the time the nurse spends with each patient. We can both go to a hospital for the exact same operation with the exact same doctor and our bills from the doctor will likely be the same. (before insurance)

[Spydyee2]

The hospital bill however could very likely be drastically different. Lets say you have family that will come in and sit with you and go get you ice and other things that they have in the floor refrigerators for the patients. Some hospitals have these set up in a pantry area where family can get them for the patients. If I do not have that and need a nurse or an aide to get them for me my bill will be higher. Some hospitals only track for info right now others track for billing.

[Spydyee2]

By liability I meant a financial liability as opposed to a financial asset.

[Spydyee2]

This has driven the cost of inpatient healthcare through the roof. If you ask a nurse or Nursing assistant to fill your pitcher of water they log in and log out and you are charged for their time. Not all hospitals have a computer system capable of this but those that do have a price tag to match their latest money making efforts. Some insurance companies negotiate with them to limit overall costs but most just accept their charges and pay what thye will and you are stuck with the rest.

[Spydyee2]

The really poor are covered. They get medicaid and it is actually pretty good in most states if the states don't skim money off the top and give lousy coverage to the people. However, if you are like me and my husband were when our youngest son was born then you are screwed. We had 80/20 Blue Cross with no annual cap on out of pocket expenditures. We had a premature child. Our 20% of his bills was $579, 287.67 for the hospital alone. Bankruptcy was our only choice.

[Spydyee2]

And do not talk to me about waiting for healthcare. I had insurance and it took them 3 weeks to get me in to see a doctor and 3 weeks to get me into see the specialist and 4 weeks to get me into the hospital to remove my uterus. The entire time I was passing clots of blood the size of my fist. By the time they got me to the hospital I was so weak they had to postpone the operation for two days while they gave me a bunch of IV solutions to build up my strength so I would survive the surgery

[Spydyee2]

You may speak for the wealthy and maybe you speak for some of the middle class but you do not speak for 61% of America. You need to review your numbers because I am pretty sure you never asked any person that has lost their home to a bankruptcy over medical bills, or had to wait for healthcare even though they had insurance, if they want a single payer system that lets the doctors decide when patients are sent to the hospital rather then the insurance companies.

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 The 61% was mentioned in the above video, not my numbers. Believe me when I say that I don't like the way healthcare is run in this country. There definitely needs to be some kind of reform, but a single payer system is not the answer, smaller govt is. A single payer system is a govt run monopoly. You rail against corporations but fail to see that a single payer system is nothing but a governmental corporation. You trust this govt to do the right thing after what you've seen?

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada Smaller government does nothing for healthcare and the industry will not fix itself. No, Single payer IS the solution and at least we have one state that is willing ot show that. Vermont is on its way to a single payer system. Also never believe the numbers that politicians quote without checking their sources. the exact same poll done at FOX news and CNN garnered exactly different responses because of the viewer base. 61% of republicans do not want a single payer system.

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 And the doctors won't have the power to decide when patients are sent to the hospital in a single payer system, the bureaucrats have that power reserved for themselves. Is that what you really want?

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada The doctors don't have that power now the insurance companies do. I have a cancer specialist that I was sent to and he informed my primary care physician that he could not see me any sooner than 3 weeks out because his office management company controls his scheduling. They are following the rules of his malpractice insurance that limits how many patients he can see. I will take the government bureaucrat that I can unelect over the corporate autocrat that I cannot.

[Spydyee2]

Yes, my insurance company decided when I could see these doctors because they had to review my records every step of the way and pre-approve my treatment because of my age and the fact that I should not have had the problems I was having according to them. Just like my husband whose gall bladder almost ruptured before a doctor would do anything for him because he was "too young" to be having gall bladder problems. They are common among people who grew up where he did because of the mineral water

[Spydyee2]

Corporations do not care about people and obviously from what I can see about the people in congress now neither do they. Maybe I just need to leave this country and go to one where human beings are more important than money but as a DAR I feel like this is my country and I am sick and tired of it being sold out to multinational corporations and their pets the greedy, deadbeat dad, sex crazed, low life politicians!

[TaoOfOkada]

@Spydyee2 You and I have the same thoughts about leaving the country then. And we both agree that corporations are greedy. But our understanding of the problem and the solutions are polar opposites. I just don't see why you trust the govt, who obviously doesn't care about any of us, to do the right thing. When was the last time that happened? If magically overnight big govt and corporatism disappeared, we would have a robust economy, more people working, and less need for welfare.

[Spydyee2]

@TaoOfOkada It is not that I trust the government it is the fact that I can vote them out of office. I have absolutely no power over a corporation. I cannot make them do anything and that means they have total control. No thank you. I will take my chance with the government bureaucrat that I can unelect rather than the corporate autocrat that I cannot.

[Xpnential999999]

Paul Ryan should be President.

[03fig]

in what world......?

[Spydyee2]

@03fig middle earth

[wilmatic]

Did she not hear the stats? and she represents my state. Can't wait to elect her out

[Spydyee2]

@wilmatic Do you not understand that she is not against reform only against privatization because of what happened in the stock market to so many seniors who put money into 401Ks through their companies and lost so very much of it. My mom lost 87% of the value of her 401K in under 24 hours because of the stock market crash right before the bank bailouts. She would be homeless right now if that had been all she had to retire on. Thank God and FDR for the Social Security Act.