STOP calling it an entitlement

[dballance]

I've paid the FICA and medicare taxes since before I had a job at a company that handed me a check. I paid FICA even back when I was a teen-ager and raising soy beans and cattle on the farm. It was pretty much a cash business but my dad made us file tax returns and pay the self-employment taxes because that was the right thing to do.

So I've been paying into Social Security and Medicare for the last 30+ years. That means if I get SS benefits I'm not getting a hand out aka "entitlement." I'm getting earned benefits for which I have paid.

So GOP, stop demonizing a program that will pay out to people who paid into it as an investment for all their working life.

And Democrats, please get a clue and re-frame the argument. You won't lose by insisting people get the benefits for which they paid over their life as workers. Correct the GOP and tell them SS and Medicare are NOT entitlements. I've paid for them.

[Lionessa]

1. I say this till I'm blue in the face, here, in ID, and Vanc, WA....

Same thing with unemployment. I'm so tired of hearing folks who pay this out of their paychecks, one of the taxes they never stop bitching about, and yet somehow it's "welfare"

[msongs]

2. Earned rewards, Earned benefits, return on investment - lots of other things to call it nt

[freshwest]

3. Rush calls it charity...

[NYC_SKP]

4. Ask California Teachers, We call it a Rip-Off in the making....

I am led to believe that upon retiring with a mix of just 20 years in teaching that the 30 years in SS FICA contributions will not be returned to me; that I cannot collect both (there are a few exceptions0.

I'm angered, but never planned to retire so what the hell, whatever.

But if I can't get anything out from 30+ years paying in, it's a Rip Off.

[dionysus]

5. jesus christ, not again.. you just DEFINED the word entitlement...look up the word in the dictionary

[cthulu2016]

6. Just because you don't understand the term doesn't make it wrong

"getting a hand out aka "entitlement.""

No... entitlement doesn't mean a hand out. It means a payment that you are entitled to.

En-titled... like the title on a car.

You own it. You are entitled. You paid into the program and you are ENTITLED to the payments.

[Angry Dragon]

9. +1998

[sabrina 1]

17. That is not how the word is used regarding SS and Medicare. It is used as in 'you people

have a sense of entitlement to a handout which you have no claim. And everyone knows that. When they call SS an entitlement, the Right has succeeded in creating the impression that people are NOT entitled to it, but they are displaying a 'sense of entitlement' to something which they do not deserve.

Words are weapons used to create impressions. The Right has been very successful at doing this.

The OP is correct, regardless of the actual meaning of the word, that meaning is lost when it is used to describe programs like SS.

The very fact that you had to explain it, proves my point.

SS is money earned, a return on an investment into a retirement fund. People understand better that it is something they are entitled to when it is described that way.

[lumberjack_jeff]

26. Tickety boo, mate. +1 nt

[Speck Tater]

7. As always, the Dems roll over and let the Repubs pick the names.

And then the Dems follow suit like obedient little puppies.

[Recursion]

21. What does "entitlement" mean to you guys?

To me, it means something to which you are statutorily entitled. Like SS or Medicare. Call me crazy.

[Speck Tater]

23. A word "means" what it's used to imply.

By being used in a certain way a word can be used to mean something different from it's "true" meaning. When used in that way long enough the word comes to mean something different than it's "true" meaning.

"An awful, pompous, artificial edifice" was a high compliment paid to St. Paul's Cathedral meaning awe-inspiring, majestic, and man-made. But those "true" meanings have been forgotten after the new meanings were "used into existence".

The Republicans are using the the word "entitlement" in a context that implies something you have not actually earned, but think you deserve anyway. We can't undo the contranym, so we need to step away from the word itself and re-frame the issue.

It's the same process that we've seen with words like "retarded", "crippled", "colored", which used to be perfectly good words, but which were tainted by pejorative use and had to be replaced with more neutral terms.

"entitlement" has become a tainted word and needs to be discarded.

[Angry Dragon]

8. Call it an insurance policy

[Go Vols]

11. yep

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. Ummm... it absolutley is an entitlement - by definition.

If you buy a house or a car, the title is in your name. They are legally "entitled" to you.

YOU paid YOUR money into the SS/MC program. It is YOUR money being paid back to YOU. The money belongs to you and you have a legal right to receive it - it is entitled to you. How is SS/medicare not an "entitlement"?!?

Google >> "define: entitlement" - (Noun) 1.The fact of having a right to something.
Google >> "define: entitle" - (Verb) 1.Give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something.

[dballance]

18. Don't be obtuse. The GOP uses the word "entitlement" to try to make SS and Medicare like a handout

Are you writing from the Koch brothers or Paul Ryan's computers?

[Recursion]

20. But "entitlement" means something. It's right there in the word. You're "entitled" to it.

What word are you going to let get redefined next?

[TreasonousBastard]

12. As others have said-- it IS an entitlement, but...

stop saying there's something bad about entitlements.

[zerosvision]

13. its not entitlement, its my livelihood!!!!!

thank GOD for s.s.
ewwwww the republicans and their conservations.....how rediculious.....
wouldnt it be nice if our "entitlement" income was oooooh say $16K a month....gezzzz i could live well on that....
would like to see a republican congressman live on my income....>


the salary of congressional members is: $193,400 annual OR $16,166.66 monthly
(not to mention mileage + all the other perks) you try liveing on $16,000. a month
...cant do it can ya?.........>http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

[limpyhobbler]

14. Surely you jest?

Better to defend the idea that we are entitled to retire and age with dignity.

Since that's what social security and Medicare are for.

[KAIXIN1]

15. STOP calling it an entitlement

Thanks for your post.

[PoliticAverse]

16. So you don't think people that paid FICA taxes are entitled to receive Social Security ? n/t

[Mc Mike]

19. +1. Dusted off an old one from Manny G:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9171026

[mick063]

22. Also

Quit using the terms "tax incentive" and "subsidy" as well.


They are "giveaways". Plain and simple. They are also, in my view, of less importance than taking good care of our elderly.

[slackmaster]

24. I don't buy into petty arguments over word usage. SS and Medicare are indeed entitlements.

As in a right to benefits specified by law.

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. STOP treating "entitlement" as a dirty word.

You're entitled to the benefit for which your premiums (SS taxes) indemnify you.

SS is insurance. The benefit of that insurance is an entitlement if I experience the event for which I'm insured.

[KansDem]

27. I got into a scrape with a TBagger who was calling it "welfare"

I explained it was an insurance policy

He said "no," it's welfare

I asked him if he thought his auto insurance policy, his life-insurance policy, his home-owners' insurance policy were "welfare"

He said "no"

I then said SS was the same thing: we all pay premiums and it's there for when we need it

He said "no," it's welfare

I walked away...