Services Provided for with taxes

[Thiebear]

After reading the Tennesee Fire Department issue and earlier in the year when i was scolding different cities for laying off fire/police/teachers when they have million dollar slush funds for gov't committee's.

Figured i start a poll: Add to this if you want.

My basic premise: I work for free until July 15th this year? I should get:

State/Fed: (adding city/county for those that have it).

Fire/Rescue

Police

Public School

Road repair

Military

Border enforcement

Unemployment

Things i should not receive by default:

SS/Medicaid/Chips/Medicare: I make over 75k, should be for 35K and below (personal belief).

I think unemployment should come from your Social Security payments if you have them and be for 3-4 months based on the studies.

[Bang]

Some things i see as undeniable,, fire, police, roads..

Other things like healthcare, Medicare, (even SS) I'm all for means testing.

Some people do require some assistance, and I think as an enlightened society we should assist those less fortunate. However, given the very acute issues we see facing us financially, I think if you can afford to live without medicare, or a gov't provided healthcare, then you should not receive it.

As far as those who say "but people have paid into it..".. this is true, however, there's plenty of things i pay into that I never use.. car insurance for example. I've paid tens of thousands over the years, never once claimed on it, and i'll never get anything back for it. I pay taxes that pay for the fire dept, but i've never used them. I pay taxes to keep up roads I've never driven on and likely never will. I don't complain because i recognize the necessity.

We're faced with some hard truths. Such as, we can't afford everyone who wants what they paid into for a variety of reasons,, some dubious, some very legit. Now, is anyone willing to make any sacrifice for the good of the country?

Probably not.

~Bang

[Burgold]

I'm not really opposed to anything on that list, although I would put constraints and limitations on several of them.

[TMK9973]

Here is the problem with Means testing Social Security -

Is it a Tax, or a entitlement program?

If it's a tax - then fine. You pay it and Gov uses it anyway they see fit. If it's entitlement - I paid into it for 20, 30, 40 years then why should I not get to collect? Its money I paid into it!

[Bang]

Here is the problem with Means testing Social Security -

Is it a Tax, or a entitlement program?

If it's a tax - then fine. You pay it and Gov uses it anyway they see fit. If it's entitlement - I paid into it for 20, 30, 40 years then why should I not get to collect? Its money I paid into it!

This is why i closed by asking if anyone was willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good of the country.

~Bang

[TMK9973]

This is why i closed by asking if anyone was willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good of the country.

~Bang

Fair enough - and yes -Here is what I think - at least for Social Security.

Get rid of the limit.

and yes- This will effect me personally.

But the Idea that SSN stops after a certain amount is silly. Don't get me wrong -I like it when I hit that limit and my paycheck goes up - but it needs to be done

[December90]

Everything

- No

Fire/Rescue

- Local/state

Police

- local/state/federal

Public Schools

- Local (with provisions for vouchers for private schools) (Choice is good with educating children, not so good with killing them before they are even born)

Medicaid/Social Security

- NO.

Military/CG/Border

- Federal

Chips/kids

- ummm No

Roads

- Federal (Interstates) State/local (all other roads)

Healthcare

- NO

Unemployment

- NO

Food

- NO

Nothing

- There is a role for limited government. Just not an all encompassing nanny state that, in general, seeks to remove all risks and rewards.

[Bang]

Fair enough - and yes -Here is what I think - at least for Social Security.

Get rid of the limit.

and yes- This will effect me personally.

But the Idea that SSN stops after a certain amount is silly. Don't get me wrong -I like it when I hit that limit and my paycheck goes up - but it needs to be done

I think it's one of the things we keep sweeping under the rug and hope it just goes away.

To me it's simple numbers. The people who paid into it have not paid enough to sustain it. (It's not they're fualt.. some of them started paying in when people could live on 4 grand a year...)

There's a number of reasons,, the higher cost of living (that just goes up and up and up), and the fact that the largest segment of our population are all going to be claiming it within the next 5 to 10 years,, it's just not going to work.

People will have to make sacrifice, me included most likely. Either that or it's just a matter of time before we're belly up.

~Bang

[GhostofSparta]

State/Local/City:

-Fire/rescue

-Police

-Roads (anything not an interstate)

-Schools (At least most of the bill. I'd rather it be a sales tax than a property tax, but that's not a can of worms to open up here)

Federal:

-Military, borders, and anything involving protecting the country as a whole

-Schools (to a small extent, mostly enough funding to cover the mandates and laws congress keeps passing involving education)

-Medicaid/SS

Unsure:

-Unemployment

[Thiebear]

This is what i'm talking about:

Montgomery County was awarded $174.2 million in stimulus funds. So far, the county has received about $101.3 million, $90 million of which has gone to transportation projects.

A $13.2 million road improvement project on 4 1/2 miles of Route 422 was financed by ARRA funds, and at its peak of construction in 2009 the project employed 139 workers, according to PennDOT. But the average number of workers employed on a monthly basis during the 16-month project was 66. That average works out to spending about $200,000 per job.

Under Leggett's plan, 107 fire and rescue positions, mostly emergency medical service jobs, would be eliminated out of a fire department staff of 1,077.

With just 20 of the positions vacant, 87 fire department workers would be handed pink slips

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Leggett-threatens-10-percent-cut-to-MontCo-fire-department-1123342-104379108.html#ixzz11ccy4vrn

Feb 11, 2008 | Posted by: roboblogger

Montgomery County DA accused of running 'slush fund'

Council Rejects Cut in Raises - washingtonpost.com

[May 14, 2008] Montgomery County Council members voted yesterday to increase local energy taxes and ... "If they won't pay our salaries, we can't plow their streets

Took less than 2 minutes to find all the waste while they cut rescue.

[Hubbs]

But the Idea that SSN stops after a certain amount is silly. Don't get me wrong -I like it when I hit that limit and my paycheck goes up - but it needs to be done

I've never understood that. Really rich people can't go bankrupt? When the hell has that ever been true?

[GhostofSparta]

A $13.2 million road improvement project on 4 1/2 miles of Route 422 was financed by ARRA funds, and at its peak of construction in 2009 the project employed 139 workers, according to PennDOT. But the average number of workers employed on a monthly basis during the 16-month project was 66. That average works out to spending about $200,000 per job. .

Yeah, I live right where that project was going on. I'll say this: I hope it created a lot of jobs, because it took them almost 2 ****ing years to to repave 5 miles of road. Up here obviously isn't nearly as busy as anywhere near DC/Baltimore, but cutting that road down to 1 lane for almost 2 years was a cluster**** of an idea. And that annoying "ARRA project" sign just made me mad after about....oh....9 months of having 1 lane when no work was being done on 3/4 of the road.