The Real Entitlement Programs

I have spent the last week becoming disheartened by all the political discourse spewn out by the Republican candidates.  Most, if not all, is unclear, misleading or outright lies. Let me review and comment on a few.

First of all the wealthy Americans get a lot more free money from entitlement programs than the poor or middleclass.  I know that many, in the Media don’t report on this fact and many people don't know that in America we have far more entitlement programs for the rich than for the poor. In fact the rich do very well in America and they repay the country by paying very low or no taxes.  There are far too many entitlements to list so I will list a few that should be changed immediately.

Capital Gains Tax: The Capital gains tax benefits the rich far more than the middle class and poor. When one group gets ALL or most of the benefits from a program that is an entitlement. It also robs the US treasury of needed money to run the government. Rich people who own tens of millions in stock and other assets like real estate can sell these assets and they pay 15% on their gain. Keep in mind that over 75% of all wealthy Americans got their money the old fashioned way they INHERITED IT. So capital gains rewards the rich and lazy who didn't work for their money.

The rich have this tax capped at $106K. So for Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and all those making over $106K are allowed to avoid this tax. Brian Williams makes $10 million in salary and he pays the tax on just 1% of his wages. The CEO making $50 million per year pays Social Security tax on just one day's wages. The Wal - Mart mother pays on all her wages. Sounds fair to you ? So the top 1% who own 50% of all financial assets and make 25% of all income pays the tax on about 1. % of their wages while the middle class and the poor pay the tax on 100%, all their wages.

US government programs designed to help the poor are used by the rich too and they get more benefits. A recent study showed Medicare provided over $100 billion in payments to people who are rich. These people had heart operations and other operations and the taxpayers paid the bill. Why? Everyone pays the same Medicare premiums - rich and poor. There are virtually hundreds of tax laws that help the rich. We need to get rid of these. Our current government system is of by and for the rich - not the people. Those of you who claim to be Christians need to start following the instruction of JC."

A glance at some of the recipients of farm subsidies in shows that many of those receiving these subsidies clearly do not need them. 12 Fortune 500 companies received farm subsidies .Subsidies to the four largest of these recipients -- Westvaco, Chevron, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance, and Caterpillar -- shattered their previous record highs. This is a joke and must be addressed in a later post because of the depth and complexity of this free program.

As always our Republican leaders want to make cuts in programs that help the poor while lowering taxes on the rich and leaving their free entitlement programs alone. It is almost too much for a same person to stomach. Why do we, as voters, allow this? We allow this because the Tea Party leadership has convinced a large group of people that they are looking out for their needs while President Obama is not.

I can show an example of how destructive the Tea Party has become. In the debate and negotiations over the health care bill, the ACA, the discussion started with a framework designed by the Republicans in the 80’s. In an effort to get a bill passed Democrats bowed to pressure from the opposition and added and or stripped sections that would make the bill more Republican friendly. In essence it was a bill crafted and approved by Republicans. The Democrats gave in on almost all of their ideas to strengthen this bill. They negotiated with the Republicans to get some kind of protection for sick Americans. In fact the President took a lot of heat from his own base for giving too much away.

In steps the Tea party and in an effort to destroy the President, pressured Republican leaders to vote against their own bill just to try and stop the President’s agenda.

Next the lies started and it would take many pages to describe all of them in a small post. I fear that if Mitt is elected there will be too much power in the hands of the Tea Party and our country will go downhill fast. If Obama is elected there will be another four years of obstruction and America will continue to decline.
I just wish people would wake up and take their country back from the wealthy or soon we will all be in the same position as our predecessors of the 20’s and 30’s.  In bread lines.