What if we changed the frame & stopped calling medicare and Social Security "entitlements" & instead

[jillan]

called them "Earned Benefits?" After all, that's what they are. We've been paying into these benefits since the day we started working, every single day we work.

I can't take credit for this - this is from another DUer who doesn't know I'm posting this, yet :)

I love it. I think she is brilliant!

[snappyturtle]

1. Great idea...kudos for presenting it and more kudos to your mentor. nt

[Trajan]

2. Hmmm

Social Security is INSURANCE ..... It isn't an 'entitlement' .... That is GOP-Talk to pretend someone is getting something for free only because 'they are entitled', and don't actually deserve it ...

[TxVietVet]

3. Brilliant. It's what it is...... EARNED BENEFITS.

I listen to conservanazis saying "we" can't pay for Social Security. I try to explain to the single-brain-cell moron that SS and Medicare have been paid for. They lose it by then.

F*ck. It's EARNED BENEFITS.

BTW, true believer conservanazis believe that any government check that goes to any individual except rich folks, is an "entitlement". If and when you can get them cranked up about veterans, you'll find that some even consider VA benefits as welfare. "How come EVERYONE who served gets VA benefits?"

AS a matter of fact, Rep. Paul Ryan answered a letter I wrote to him about VA funding. IN it, he basically stated that VA benefits should be paid ONLY to those who were wounded in an actual combat situation. Now, I'm sure he has that letter on file. I should have kept it. It pissed me off so much, I threw it away. I looked for it in my records and wished I had kept it as proof of just how sorry Lyin' Ryan is.

[indepat]

13. Proof of just how sorry Ryan is ratified imo virtually every time he opens his mouth

:patriot:

[notadmblnd]

4. it is insurance that we pay for just like our cars or homes.

[midnight]

5. Earned benefits might be a trigger for taxing the poor more..

The system is rigged... It is not fair... The rich are having elected officials tell us we have to share the pain.. Medicare and Social Secuity are not causing the debt. Just call the rich out on their game... It's their tax deduction that are destroying the economy.....

[jillan]

7. Well then let's call it insurance, but whenever they say entitlement, they need to be corrected.

[louslobbs]

6. I agree totally with that suggestion, from now on, to me, they are "earned benefits" thank you

messaging is extremely important. Excellent suggestion, I will pass that on to friends.

Lou

[jillan]

8. Messaging is important. I would love to see Democrats control that message more often.

[Jack Sprat]

9. Social Security is like an annuity purchased

from an insurance company during your working life in payroll payments instead of a lump sum.

Medicare is health insurance purchased for your senior years when you need it most. Most everybody paid into private medical plans in our younger years which were rarely used except in cases of severe flu. We were paying for our Medicare insurance for senior years through our paychecks when we were young and healthy.

This isn't difficult to assimilate at all for reasonable minds. But, as usual, the Right usually frames the debate through FauxNews and talking heads on radio to make the accepted suddenly unacceptable anymore. They take the reasonable wisdom of decades and make it unreasonable. They take the immoral and make it sound moral and vice versa.

[RichGirl]

10. I don't think it's necessary anymore.

The public...both sides...have caught on. Call it what you want, nobody wants it gone except millionaires and republican politicians.

[JDPriestly]

11. They are earned retirement benefits. That is precisely what they are.

Entitlements are the tax breaks for the wealthy. Those are the entitlements.

[indepat]

16. And wealthy large corporations: those oil company subsidies are entitlements,

as are preposterously low income taxes on capital gains and dividends for the wealthy, along with absurdly low top marginal income tax rates. No, they are actually outright welfare for which the government borrows to fund and this has been done with intent and malice of forethought since the early days of the gipper to provide the excuse to gut social security and Medicare. :patriot:

edited to insert and

[99th_Monkey]

12. I totally agree! That word "entitlements" has always rubbed me the wrong way.

I conjures up images of "Welfare Queens", et. al.

and as you point out, is not even accurate in the first place.

[Brigid]

14. Perfect rephrasing.

And much more accurate.

[Skidmore]

15. I suggest we also get our erstwhile Dem officials to do the same

and to quite allowing the Rs to frame the issues.