February 12, 2013
Tuesday PM

For over a decade much of the federal budget debate among House of Representative conservatives, has referred to medicare and social security as a drag on the economy. The term entitlement is used sarcastically. What they are really saying is that Americans who have paid into Social Security and Medicare for their entire lives really are NOT entitled to receive anything in return. Led by Representative Paul Ryan, their budget reform proposals call for cutting such things as these entitlements for middle class Americans..

Despite all the rhetoric about spending money we don't have, as we have seen this debate evolve, some members of Congress in reality see federal spending not about adhering to a budget at all. Instead it is about deciding who is entitled and who is not.

The tassel-shoe army of lobbyists has descended upon the halls of Congress just to remind the Congress of their priorities. They represent the vast array of private corporations like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics and Amgen and midwest farmers whose private profits depend on public funding. In effect, they feel they are ENTITLED to have the taxpayer fund their private for- profit enterprises.

And so the same representatives like Paul Ryan and his followers who PRETEND to be in favor of reduced spending are now advocating spending money we don't have on the entitlement of publicly funded defense corporations, and countless other make-believe private enterprises. The pretenders already arguing the too big to fail spin in favor of supporting the million jobs supported by their industrial spending of public money. They now wave the American flag and offer dramatic representations of disabled veterans, using the patriotic sympathy of most Americans to defend a corporate subsidy program that brings shame to America and ultimately the downfall of its economy and culture.

Michael Spence
Ketchikan, AK

About: "A taxpayer concerned about the private spending of public assets"

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