patrick.net

marcus says

If you don't say how much of that total 2.9 trillion in receipts is from SS and medicare taxes

$959 billion in Social Security and other payroll taxes

$1359 in individual income tax

as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget#Total_revenues_and_spending

Even if Social Security and other payroll taxes was to increase by 50%, it would still be at least less than 50% less than the outlays for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

As far as entitlement spending, add to the below list also the USDA food stamp program and other nutrition programs as well as HUD's housing assistance. So the below only represents a portion of the total entitlement spending for 2012:

1) $940.9 billion for Health and Human Services (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.)

2) $883.7 billion for Social Security Administration

The above 2 entitlement programs are 3 times greater than Dept of Defense spending.

adarmiento says

The above 2 entitlement programs are 3 times greater than Dept of Defense spending.

Still misleading.

WE have a tax FICA, that is expressly for SS.

We have another tax, medicare, that goes toward medicare.

Up until fairly recently, the FICA incoming money was greater than outgoing. If you consider interest on the SS trust fund, it's probably still greater (but it's complicated by the fact that there was a FICA tax holiday for a while).

If the SS surplus hadn't been given to the rich via tax cuts, we would be in FAR better shape than we are.

For that matter, if Gore had been elected and had segregated SS money from the budget (his so called "lock box") we would have also been far better off.

Under Gore we probably would have had a post millenial long stagnation in the economy, with less war, and we probably would have avoided the bubble, the crash and the depression we've been in.

When the SS trust fund money is spent on SS benefits, republicans include that in the "entitlement spending" boogey man.

I agree that the Social Security fund should never have been used to finance the debt.

But you cannot deny that the top two entitlement programs are 3 times greater than the Department of Defense budget. Tap dance around that, or keep throwing up straw mans as much as you want.

adarmiento says

But you cannot deny that the top two entitlement programs are 3 times greater than the Department of Defense budget. Tap dance around that, or keep throwing up straw mans as much as you want.

Defense comes out of a general income taxes.

Social security and medicare have separate taxes, you can read right on your pay stub, how much goes to SS and how much goes to medicare. This is money that is supposedly put away for you, to get back in your old age as pension and old age health incurance (that you pay in to your whole woking life).

That's not tap dancing. It's just facts. They may mean something different to you than they do to me, but still facts.

Now, if you want to talk about how much more gets spent on old age health care under medicare, than what we paid in, well that's an interesting conversation to have. It essentially means we need death panels (ie people and policies for fair rationing of expensive end of life treatments).

Probably plenty of other reforms to bring down health care.

But comparing money paid out of what is essentially a pension fund, or money paid out of what is essentially a health plan you pay in to for your whole working life, to what we spend on defense that comes out of general income tax ?

That makes no sense.

I know, I know, too complicated. You know what you know. I'm tap dancing.

Whatever.

I am saying that out of total taxes, that the USA pays 3 times as much just on social security, medicare and medicaid than on the department of defense. And that does not include other social spending such as food stamps and education funding.

Stay Classy, Massachusetts Democrats...

Being asked to pay $800 for FOI request on DTA records that's already months old? Fuckin' SHAMEFUL! And the requester isn't some nobody. She's a Mass state rep. Stonewalling like crazy, these democrats. This data must have some really damning evidence.

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2013/06/shaunna_o_connell_pays_info_ransom

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Welfare reform crusader state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell delivered on her promise yesterday to fork over $800 for long-awaited records on bloated EBT balances, saying the pricey “ransom” was thanks to a surge of donations from fed-up constituents.

O’Connell wrote the check and marched down the hill from the State House to the Downtown Crossing offices of the Department of Transitional Assistance to personally deliver the fee.

“If DTA wants to hold these records hostage and make me pay ransom for them, then I’m going to pay the ransom for them,” she told the Herald as she embarked on her mission. “These should be public records. The public has a right to know.”

.

O’Connell is demanding electronic copies of all EBT balances over a six-month period this past fall and winter with balances above $1,500. She was told the records will be delivered within 10 days.

Gov. Deval Patrick has supported the $800 price tag for the records, with officials saying the money will be used to compile the data.

“We’re talking about taxpayers. They’re paying their taxes, they’re paying for fraud in this program, and now they’re helping to get these records,” O’Connell said. “I’m just going to pay this. I don’t want to drag it out anymore.”

O’Connell can use campaign funds for political expenditures as long as it “not primarily personal” in nature, according to a spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

“Campaign funds can be used to pay for a records request if it enhances their political future,” said spokesman Jason Tait, adding he couldn’t directly comment on O’Connell’s case.

O’Connell said she launched her EBT project after a store owner in Pittsfield sent her a receipt showing a customer’s alarming $7,000 EBT balance.

“Somebody who accumulated that much money shouldn’t be on welfare,” she said. “That’s fraud.”

DTA spokesman Alec Loftus said in a statement yesterday: “We are glad that Representative O’Connell is paying for her request, so taxpayers don’t have to pick up the tab.”

The Taunton Republican’s do-it-yourself probe comes a week after state Auditor Suzanne M. Bump released a scathing report showing DTA paid about $2.4 million to 1,100 dead people — and doled out millions more to live recipients collecting EBT benefits from Florida and Las Vegas to the Virgin Islands.

Evidence of sky-high EBT balances could raise new questions at the scandal-ravaged welfare department, including whether such recipients even need public assistance and whether they are fraudulently holding more than one card.

The payoff came as a committee of lawmakers dove into closed-door meetings to hash out a 
$34 billion state budget, with House-passed welfare reforms looming large in the negotiations.

yet another example of Welfare abuse. This time it's in NYC, where Welfare abusers are taking tax-payer $$, buying food here, and shipping it to other countries in barrels for profit. Not to feed poor people OUTSIDE of our country for free. FOR PROFIT....

Any liberal on patrick care to defend our status quo, piss poor, job of managing our welfare system? hmm?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/isle_take_that_welfare_scam_VBsTspIxia2GA9o2oS505L

adarmiento says

I agree that the Social Security fund should never have been used to finance the debt.

What you actually mean, but are failing to say is, that SS funds should have never been used to finance defense spending since defense is over half the general budget if honest accounting were used.

bob2356 says

adarmiento says

I agree that the Social Security fund should never have been used to finance the debt.

What you actually mean, but are failing to say is, that SS funds should have never been used to finance defense spending since defense is over half the general budget if honest accounting were used.

ie, has nothing to do with this thread (Welfare abuse/fraud).... SS is a different topic.....

EBT Fraudster threatens cop with VooDoo after crashing car....

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/what_the_hex_oui_suspect_charged_in_wild_crash_threatened_cop

A Cadillac-driving OUI suspect — charged with running a Boston Globe delivery truck off Interstate 93 and onto the Leverett Connector — was carrying three EBT cards, mocked a cop “for paying for food when she gets it for free” and threatened to put a voodoo curse on him, according to a police report.“I questioned her as to why she had other peoples (sic) EBT cards and she 
began screaming that I was a ‘dumb (expletive)’ for paying for food when she gets it for free,” trooper William Koko­cinski wrote of Vivencia 
Bellegarde, 25, of Everett, noting she had her own electronic benefits transfer card and also the cards of two other people.“She repeatedly called me a racist and told me she was from Haiti and she was gonna ‘put voodoo on my white (expletive),’” Kokocinski wrote. “(She) told me to Google her name and find out who I was ‘(expletive) with’. She further explained that her name translated means ‘give life take life’ and she emphasized ‘TAKE LIFE’. She then shouted that she was ‘coming for all you white (expletives).’”A spokesman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers welfare, said in a statement the agency has been notified of Bellegarde’s EBT cards “and will take appropriate action.”“DTA investigates every
tip that it receives from members of the public or law enforcement, and refers cases to the auditor’s Bureau of Special Investigations for further action, which has the power to investigate potential criminal matters,” the statement said.Bellegarde, who is listed as unemployed in court 
papers, is being held on $10,000 bail on charges of drunken driving causing serious injury. Surveillance video of the 3:13 a.m. Monday crash shows a car slamming into the Globe truck, forcing it off the roadway and into a frightening 40-foot free fall. The truck came apart on impact with the Leverett Connector 
on-ramp below.The truck driver, Paul Healy Jr., 35, of Brockton, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was in fair condition yesterday. He declined to comment yesterday through a family member. - See more at: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/what_the_hex_oui_suspect_charged_in_wild_crash_threatened_cop#sthash.l62UFnZO.dpuf