Well that is quite the presumption. But if that is what you need to cope in the following days, I will certainly not oppose that view. Psychological integrity is essential to the healing process.
Okay. There's no money to refund. Can't do that. Agreed. Okay. Can't tell people to take care of themselves. Agreed. What are your proposals for Medicare in the future? There's no money for it. There won't be any money for it on any scale to remotely support the kind of medical care it has helped to give people in the last 10-20 years. None of you guys want to touch that, because you want to get your Medicare and you think that by throwing the poor to the wolves will save your asses when you retire with diabetes, heart disease, blood disorders, cancers, degenerative diseases, prescriptions up the wazoo. But it won't. The fact is if we abolish Medicaid and food stamps, and other programs for the poor, it will hardly make a dent in the looming Medicare nightmare. So you say we can't throw the poor off the dole because they will riot. Boo hoo. That's bullshit. You know once the poor get shut out its the middle class next. So you have no proposals but to further kick the can down the road and keep everyone on the tit. Because you are probably in your 60s now and feel "entitled" to your "Entitlements".
I am addressing yours, but you haven't noticed because are missing the bigger picture grasshopper. The nanny state includes Medicare with Medicaid, food stamps, rent assistance, child credit, etc. All programs have to go on the table and face the paring knife.
Well yes, I do kinda' feel entitled to it since they've been taking MY money for 40+ f'n years. So yeah, I want something for it. What would I do? Well first off I'd take every living member of congress who has served since the 60's and execute them. That won't fix anything, but I'd feel a lot better. Like I wrote, there is no fix. All the money is gone, so unless we tax ourselves into poverty these programs are going bye-bye. It's just a matter of time. All these miserable pricks are trying to do is flatten out the glide path before we crash.
Actually, a mass execution might fix things. The next generation of Congress people probably would be free of miscreants.
There's no question all programs have to be on the table. But the point of this thread (in the OP) was what happens to a country when the takers begin to outnumber the makers. You can discuss cutting entitlement programs (and we should) but the solution is to get the people who have gotten used to collecting a check from the government to go out and earn a living- to become "makers".
The only people that have tried to fix this problem is the republicans. Republicans keep tripping over their own balls, but that's another story. Every proposed reduction is met from liberal democrats with hyperbole like "hands off MY health care", "Nazi", " grandma killers", etc. and then a senate filibuster when Bush was in, or a veto when Clinton was in. There are actually some very sensical changes such as stopping critical care for nursing home patients over 75 years old, unless they pay. It is well known that the last 6 months of life costs most of the money. We currently can't do that or liberals will call you killers or certain right wingers will call it a death panel. Allowing old people to die of natural causes is now equated to murder. I blame liberal politics for most of it.