Back to Basics

The result of all the drama emanating from Capitol Hill and the White House has been to get a lot of people wondering about the sustainability of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the “debt ceiling”, the limit on how much the federal government is permitted to borrow, must be raised. It is essentially an accounting fiction because, since 1960, it has been raised 78 times; 49 times by Republican presidents and 29 times by Democrat presidents.

What makes it an issue now? $14.3 trillion dollars worth of U.S. debt.

It is not just the size of this debt, probably the greatest that any nation has ever owed in history, it is that it was initially due to a financial rescue program in 2008 when President Bush and Congress sought to avoid a collapse of Wall Street and banks. The TARP funds were eventually repaid.

Part of the current debt is due to massive spending programs by the Obama administration, allegedly to “create or save” jobs and “stimulate” the economy. They did neither.

The Obama spending programs were, in essense, Democrat slush funds parceled out to the party’s faithful to ensure that teachers and other public service workers would be retained, that General Motors and Chrysler could avoid the normal bankruptcy procedures that would have restructured both companies—and likely reduce union power, and that favored contractors could receive funding for “shovel ready projects.”

A long term, on-going problem has been the current and future debt is attributed to meeting the obligations of Social Security, introduced in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and to the high costs of Medicare and Medicaid. The latter became law on July 30, 1965 as an amendment to the existing Social Security legislation.

In sum, both programs reflect the Democratic Party’s commitment to “social justice” (wealth redistribution) that began in the early part of the last century. Republicans were not immune to this. President George W. Bush added to the costs of Medicare with prescription coverage.

The battle on Capital Hill is between the Democrats, led by President Obama, who wants to raise taxes in the midst of what is called a recession but is truly a Depression 2.0. Raising taxes is what President Roosevelt did and it simply prolonged the Great Depression by sucking money out of the free market economy.

On the other side of the non-negotiating table are the Republicans who, thanks to the Tea Party members of the House, have been forced to reclaim their reputation as a party devoted to limited government and prudent fiscal policies.

It is assumed by all that the debt ceiling with be lifted. It is unknown whether the nation’s credit rating of AAA will be reduced as the result of a failure to substantially cut spending and, far more importantly, meet its obligation to repay its debt. Indeed, the central issue is all about credit.

A nation that must borrow billions every day to meet its obligations cannot afford to lose a rating that is rooted in the very beginning of its history when Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, insisted that all Revolutionary War debts be paid in full.

Social Security is the largest government benefit program in the world.

Once again this spring my daughter Regis and I were fortunate to spend two weeks hunting bears in Alaska with four Purple Heart recipients. As God would have it, three out of the four warriors were able to let the air out of some beautiful black bears and, thankfully, we got the majority of these hunts on film for our upcoming PETA petrifying TV show. Delicious.

Before splitting for Alaska and joining the best of the best for a black bear smack down, the Padrón Cigar Company in Miami gave my friend Oscar a box of cigars to bless our guests for putting their lives on the line for our freedom, families and flag. Muchas gracias to the Padrón Family. Rest assured, Señor Padrón, they welcomed and enjoyed the cigars immensely. The gentlemen who roasted these bad boys during the trip told me to tell you, “Thank you very much!” So, thank you very much.

I have long been a big fan of Padrón cigars. I love their entire lineup of smokes from the Family Reserve, to their top shelf 1926 series, to the 1964 anniversary edition, to their Padrón series, especially the 7000. I have never had a bad Padrón; their cigars have always rocked my world, and that’s why they will have a permanent place in my beautiful humidor.

Aside from Padrón’s generosity in giving cigars to our nation’s finest during our hunt and apart from being impressed time and time again with the quality of their smokes, I was also duly impressed by the story of how Padrón cigars came to be—especially in light of the fact of how many whiners in our nation have become giant, wet-diapered entitlement clowns. Not so with José Orlando Padrón. Check it out in José’s own words:

In 1962, I arrived in Miami, an unknown city in a foreign land. I had to start from zero. At first I received $60 monthly as government aid given to Cuban refugees. I was thirty-six years old, strong and in good health. Every time I cashed that check, I felt like a burden on the country that had taken me in. For many days, I looked for a job and did not find one. Every night, I went home and thought of the future. I was determined to do something so that I could support my family.

One day, Raul Fernandez, a friend who worked in the Cuban Refugee Office, asked if I had any carpentry skills. I said I did. He gave me a gift—a small hammer—which he asked me to put to good use. The hammer made me feel I had the necessary tool to become self-sufficient and not depend on government hand-out. During the days, I worked as a gardener. At night, I did carpentry work with the hammer.

My dream was to save enough money to open a factory to make great cigars, like the ones we used to smoke in Cuba.

What is worse here? To have Romney really not be that interested in cutting entitlements or having him tell the donors that because he thought that was what they wanted to hear?

It’s true that nobody has asked me how I’d go about getting America’s financial house in order, but that’s not unusual. After all, I’m not an expert. No “Dr.” before my name and no “PhD” after it. That’s why nobody ever invites me on TV and asks me to deal with the really important things. Instead, I get stuck with taking out the trash and feeding the dog.

Well, we’ve seen what a great job the experts have been doing. I say it’s high time that I got a crack at the major problems facing us, and let Tim Geithner take out the trash and Janet Napolitano feed Duke.

First off, I’d make people stop dumping Social Security in with that hodge-podge of government giveaways collectively referred to as entitlements, but which we all know are merely crude attempts at buying votes with other people’s money. It so happens that Social Security actually is an entitlement inasmuch as it is one of the few things that Americans are actually entitled to receive from the feds.

Although it remains the most massive Ponzi scheme ever devised by the mind of man, the people who stand to collect the monthly checks upon retirement are the very people who paid in to the plan.

That is what differentiates it from all those various forms of welfare that take money from one group of people and hand it over to another group, allowing politicians to pass off extortion as benevolence. Calling the process by the high-sounding term, “redistribution of wealth,” does nothing to help it pass the smell test. Socialism is socialism, no matter what the left-wing creeps choose to label it.

It’s true that when FDR and the rest of his gang of New Dealers hatched Social Security, most people were not expected to live long enough to collect. But that’s because nobody in the 1930s envisioned that Americans would start outliving their parents and grandparents by 20 or 30 years. As a result, now, when people suggest that far down the road retirees might have to wait another couple of years before collecting their checks, everyone has a hissy fit. It seems we have become a nation of very nasty, very demanding, brats.

So, even though the times and conditions have radically changed, most people are unwilling to change with them, even though by not changing they risk killing the not-so-golden goose. But, perhaps I’m expecting a miracle. Heck, people are so stubborn that even though the average basketball player is a foot taller than he was a few decades ago, they refuse to raise the basket. Worse yet, people are so cockeyed, they still cheer when a seven-footer with a nine-foot wingspan dunks a basketball through a hoop just 10 feet off the ground.

With Social Security, the big lie was always that the money was safe and secure in a locked box. Right, it was the same sort of locked box the stage magician uses when he makes the pretty lady disappear. The only difference is that she always returns to take a bow.

I was actually hoping that with the election of all those Tea Party Republicans last November, we might actually see a new dynamic in Washington.

The Obama administration’s statement that this law simply isn’t binding on them is pretty shocking.

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is continuing to press the White House to take on entitlements, this time accusing President Obama of failing to follow a provision of a Medicare law.

Ryan claims the White House owes Congress a plan for shoring up Medicare funding because the federal government is covering more than its targeted share of the program. Ryan points to a provision of the 2003 Medicare law that requires the president to act.

“The president has failed to lead, again, on entitlement reform. By ignoring their legal requirement to submit a plan that would rectify Medicare’s funding imbalance, the Obama administration threatens the sustainability of this critical program for current and future Medicare beneficiaries,” Ryan said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget brushed off Ryan’s latest criticism, dismissing the law’s requirement as a misleading framework for determining whether Medicare is solvent. She also raised constitutional questions about whether Congress can make such a demand of the executive branch. . . .

The estimate of fraud leaves out certain obvious instances of fraud from the nearly 10 percent claim.

Nearly 10 percent of all Medicare payments are fraudulent or otherwise improper, and the government isn’t doing enough to stop them.

That’s the conclusion of a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday. The report, issued at the request of a House subcommittee investigating Medicare and Medicaid fraud, estimates that the federal government is losing $48 billion on the improper payments – a significant amount for a program that “is fiscally unsustainable in the long term” unless action is taken.

The report, prepared for a House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing, said “CMS needs a plan with clear measures and benchmarks for reducing Medicare’s risk for improper payments, inefficient payment methods and issues in program management and patient care and safety.”

CMS estimates that $48 billion of estimated Medicare outlays of $509 billion in fiscal 2010 went to improper payments, including fraudulent ones. “However, this improper payment estimate did not include all of the program’s risk since it did not include improper payments in its Part D prescription drug benefit, for which the agency has not yet estimated a total amount,” said Kathleen King, director of GAO’s health care team. . . .

With everyone’s attention focused upon the Mooselim takeover in Egypt, I just thought that I would keep everyone updated on the continual Obama/liberal focused destruction of America..

Nearly 44 million in America are using food stamps. (WSJ 02/03/2011) Please note that I did not state that nearly 44 million AMERICANS are using food stamps. Several million of these lucky liberal lotto winners/recipients “in America” are here ILLEGALLY. I am willing to wager that an unsavory amount of this “several million” are here to participate in the next assault upon America, which will no doubt be instigated by and carried out by, members of the “religion of peace”. In-between cashing these checks they complain of being properly profiled as terrorists at the airport so that those tasked with stopping them can be labeled as “Islaomophobics” in order for them to look the other way when the next “Magnificent Nineteen” comes through the terminal..

The rest are here just to use America as some benevolent ATM machine because the left has told them that they are “entitled” or that stealing my money and redistributing it to these socialist sponges is a “right guaranteed to them in the Constitution”.. This is the downward spiral that takes place when the left magically turns “privileges” into “entitlements” which then become “rights”.. Somehow merely taking up space in America “entitles” you to riches far beyond that which you might have “earned” merely taking up space in the land that you came from..

Here are a few depressing numbers from within this nearly 44 million.. 14.1 percent of the United States is on Obama Stamps. Washington DC, allegedly where Obama resides between weekly vacations, claims 21.9 percent of its occupant loafers are on the Obama Stamps. 20.7 percent of those in Mississippi are content with being “Downwardly Mobile, Obama Style”.. Texas somehow acquired 697,058 NEW mendicants over last year’s total.. Florida is saddled with an additional 563,646 NEW barnacles..

January’s Obama unemployment numbers are up. Who among you is surprised by this information.. “Job creation” is something the liberals like to talk about whenever they are surrounded by the “impartial” media or when they are within a well scrubbed “town hall forum”.. Elsewhere, when the topic is brought up, the liberals “change” the subject.

Gasoline will undoubtedly rise again as the price being demanded by the blackmailers has gone to over $103 dollars a barrel.. Remember that the “California Raisin” Nancy Pelosi PROMISED lower gas prices if the liberals were handed the House of Representatives a few years ago.. The left failed with this imbecilic “promise”, I don’t think that the Republicans during the “midterm massacre” made this kind of a moronic “promise” in order to grab votes but it would be nice if they addressed what the liberals failed to.. Example: remove the ridiculous number of taxes attached to each gallon of gasoline if not permanently, then at least temporarily..

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, talks about an alternative Republican budget plan he is pushing in the House, Wednesday, April 1, 2009, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

For years, House Republicans have held Paul Ryan’s plan to revamp Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security at arm’s length, deeming it politically unwise to embrace it.

Now that the GOP controls the House, however, John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the incoming speaker of the House and majority leader, face a choice: Do they keep Ryan’s “Road Map” plan in the background, or embrace it and use it to present the country with a clear contrast to President Obama?

Ryan has said he wants to include his plan – which would move entitlements and health care in a more free market direction than Obama’s health plan, seeking to lower prices through consumer purchasing power – in the budget that comes out of his committee in April, but that he does not know if leadership will support him.

“I know what I want to do but I don’t know what I can do,” he said earlier this month.

Passing the Road Map as part of the House budget would likely go nowhere in the Senate and would undoubtedly draw the president’s veto even if it made it to his desk. But it would be a conscious decision by Republicans to do more than say no to Obama’s plan, moving beyond mere opposition to advocating a vision of their own.

“We will be choosing what kind of future we want to have for the rest of this century in the very near future in this country, probably in 2012. So I believe we owe it to the country to give them an alternative choice than the path we’re on right now,” Ryan said.

One week before the 112th Congress begins, Boehner and Cantor have kept mum about their intentions. They declined to answer questions from The Daily Caller on the matter.

A survey of Republican and Tea Party leaders found some support for the idea of embedding the Road Map in the budget, though there was also some at the grassroots level who demonstrated a lack of familiarity with the plan.

Doug Mainwaring, a Tea Party activist in the Maryland suburbs north of Washington, was unequivocal about his desire to see the Road Map banner picked up by Republican leaders in Congress.

“If the Republican leadership doesn’t get behind Mr. Ryan and actively promote the Road Map, I predict that Tea Partiers will be looking for a new crop of congressmen in 2012,” Mainwaring, a real estate agent, told TheDC.

Mainwaring said that the Road Map is “the only sincere attempt to deal with serious structural and systemic problems our nation now faces,” and said Tea Party activists are “suspicious” about why Ryan’s plan has not been put “front and center” by House GOP leaders.

Bob MacGuffie, a grassroots Tea Party activist in Connecticut, said the grassroots conservatives in his state would support the Ryan plan “100 percent” if it was introduced in the House budget.