Make Mine Freedom Cartoon - Vintage 1948

What's unnerving about this is that the rampant McCarthyism that rose to power on this sort of hysteria was a completey innacurate representation of our political reality at the time. Today the term McCarthyism is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents. It took 8-years of Bush and his henchmen to bring our country to its' knees. It may take that long to correct what the extremism of Bush and Cheney has done to the United States. Your "tea party" mobs endanger our political process with their screaming idiocy preventing due process in the popular vote by citizens who actually believe that everyone has a hand in the ship of state. Your extremism is disturbing. You should have stuck to building, Tim. We don't need yet another rabble rouser trying to keep the dysfunctional Bush years in place. Maybe you're just afraid of black people. Here's another one for you, Tim, racism. Yes, I know it's bordering on unfair to call it what it is. And yes, I know you're not really afraid of black folks, you are armed after all, but fomenting unrest against a sitting president with innuendo and lies is wrong, Tim. The next time you are in one of your screaming "tea party" mobs preventing, oh, say, a lawful re-counting of votes, maybe you should rethink your position. Would Abraham Lincoln, if he were to see you preventing our political system from working by using mob scare tactics, see you as a proud American, or would he see you as part of the problem. Enough isms for you Tim?

Response from Tim:

John,

I don't know where to start. We all know that Obama is a socialist. That's out in the open. And go back and look at the Congressional Record showing who voted how during those horrible Bush years. You'll be in for a shock my friend. The lens you're looking through is way out of focus.

Wow Tim,
I knew you were a few clicks right of center but Obama a socialist -- in the open!! I didn't expect that from you.

Now enlighten me - What is your definition of socialism? There are several kinds and definitions. You can use Wikipedia as a referance. Where do you put Obama? Also, if you could throw in some verifiable facts that might make the charge a litte more creditable.

Finally, who is the "We" you are talking about?

Let's start with the admission of ex-KGB officers who told us at Verona that everything Mr. McCarthy said was true. Fortunately we didn't have a leftwing press in the 18th century or perhaps our dictionaries would also contain the term "Adamsism" or "Patrick Henryism" or how about "Franklinism." Under socialism, social concerns--real or imagined--trump all other concerns. Next, under socialism everyone owns everything or put another way, no one owns anything. Then, since it has everyone's best interests and sensitivities at heart, the central government makes all decisions such as what each person can say, eat, drink, use, produce, barter, borrow, lend, etc. Let's look at one glaring example, the so-called healthcare reform disaster. While I haven't read all of it--probably more than most have--I have to estimate: less than 20% (I'm being generous) has anything to do with providing needed medical care for all Americans; yes, senior citizens are--at least for the time being--citizens, too. For example, (see pp. 57-59)how does giving the federal government the right to withdraw money from a private citizen's bank account? Oh, the causes for such action are unspecified. Or what about Obama's private police force, to which he alluded during his campaign, which appears hiding behind the skirts of an existing group which has the power currently to investigate the wide spectrum of deeds known as medical fraud. As the Prego commercials say, "It's in there!" Student loans monitoring? Obamacare is more about seizing power than about medicine at any level. That's why I call it "Obamacoup." The Germans of the 1920s didn't believe it could happen to them, either; however, the only real difference I can see so far is that Hitler and his group of handlers didn't cause the financial problems that inspired the most educated and culturally advanced population on earth at the time to swallow his vapid, albeit emotional, speeches about hope and change.

Dear John
It pains me that you can't or won't see what is happening in this country, that the way you speak here is how you accuse Tim et al of speaking and finally that you would ever trust wikipedia for anything. (haha)
I hope that you can take a minute to consider that the reason you are so worked up may come from a very real fear that Tim may be right.
And, just for a second, suppose he is right. Do you think that would be bad?
If you want to know what your fellow citizens are thinking, you will have to look somewhere else besides CNN or the Huffington Post. The Tea Party comes from all walks of life, different parties, religions, and ethnicities. What they have in common is a desire for fiscal responsibility in this country. If we don't have a stable economy, then every other social argument won't matter.

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into
prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to
lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill

@John a couple of things you said really disturbed me and I want to address them:

It took 8-years of Bush and his henchmen to bring our country to its' knees. It may take that long to correct what the extremism of Bush and Cheney has done to the United States.

And what progression has the extremism of the Obama Administration had? Their whole economic policy has been nothing more than putting a band aid on things - unemployment is still in the double digits and before you bleat about how it has been lowered keep in mind that when people reach the limit of their benefits they are no longer considered unemployed even though they do not have jobs. There have been bailouts for the banks and auto industries, the cash for clunkers program, and the insurance plan shoved down our throats that THE ADMINISTRATION DID NOT READ prior to voting it in. One that is unconstitutional as the federal government cannot make citizens buy a product - yet if we do not we are charged a fee. While I do not like Bush he did not do anything like this...

Your "tea party" mobs endanger our political process with their screaming idiocy preventing due process in the popular vote by citizens who actually believe that everyone has a hand in the ship of state.

Last time I checked everyone DOES have a hand in the ship of state - by using our voting privileges. And how exactly is the tea party "mob" endangering political process? By asking that the President is to be held accountable to the people? Obama promised accountability and transparency - what happened to that?

...but fomenting unrest against a sitting president with innuendo and lies is wrong...

And how is the tea party any different from the Democratic Party and liberals in this regard? They fostered unrest against Bush by using innuendo and lies for eight years... but now it's different because Obama is black? Or because he's a Democrat? Please, spare me. BOTH sides do it, it's the hypocrite who jumps up and down protesting it when the target is someone on HIS side but employs it to the fullest when it's someone who is not on his side.

Howard Roark's comment reminds me of truths we need to remember: "Our country, the noblest country in the history of men, was based on the principle of individualism, the principle of man's ‘inalienable rights.' It was a country where a man was free to seek his own happiness, to gain and produce, not to give up and renounce; to prosper, not to starve; to achieve, not to plunder; to hold as his highest possession a sense of his personal value, and as his highest virtue his self-respect." Sometimes we have to turn to fictional characters to get clear thinking!

Hmmm.. I see another John has been using many terms he obviously doesn't understand, and to strike what he believes to be the killer blow, he brings up racism.
Now, I have recently come to understand why non-existent racism is introduced into a discussion.
It is injected when one is losing the argument.
John W.

It would seem that the racists are the ones calling President Obama "black." Since he is half white, 1/3 Arab, and 1/6 black African, those who call him "black" must still adhere to the heinous "one drop of blood" rule in determining whether a man is Negro.

Tsk tsk, John. Shame on you.

Gracious, Totem. "Tea Bagger rally"? Can we assume you are referring to the very peaceful Tea Party rallies?

Although one black Tea Party attendee was badly beaten by Obama's SEIU thugs (he was a traitor, they charged), in general the Tea Partiers are upbeat and positive, never violent; so far NOT ONE of them has been arrested. Compare to any of the Leftist rallies.

Could it be you are trying to cause rage among the peaceful folks who merely want a successful America, "out of many people, one"? Please go back to the prez and tell him you've been unsuccessful. Ask for another assignment. You're just tooo obvious.

Tim, your Fire Pit seems so young to be attracting so many vicious trolls!

Congratulations. It appears you have arrived.

John H & Tokem: I suggest you study your political science, the answers are there. Don't "vote" with your heart and emotion, that apparently has led to your misaligned "values/beliefs". It makes no sense, literally and figuratively. Your assertions and hypothesis are full of holes.
Jeff, PoliSci, 89

Obama a socialist?
What planet are we in?.... and please explain why you think so.....and don't say "because Newt Gingrich says so" or some other mindless ditto head idea.
Bill Mahr is correct " the Left went Right and the Right went CRAZY!"

...... and no one on the right seem to mind Ray Gun racking up 168 billion (when a billion was a billion) to buy us into a better economy (like a drunken college kid with daddys new credit card.

Wow, amazing how personal attacks take over what should be a rational, fact-based discussion. Be that as it may, the following facts are presented for you to chew on:

1. The Tea Party STARTED as a response to Bush's planned bailout. Contrary to statements made here, we do indeed complain when there is an R in office.
2. Obama may not be a socialist, but his policies certainly are socialistic. His plan to redistribute the wealth of this nation by any means is the essence of socialism.
3. Stop listening to the pundits vis-a-vis Medicaid (or MediCare, or Welfare, or Food Stamps, etc.) We didn't want that entitlement, and we still don't want it. The pundits may be using it as a tactic to scare voters, but fiscal conservatives loathe entitlement programs, regardless of which administration passed them into law.

Now an opinion if I may:

The biggest problem this country has right now is that the government has taken away our most fundamental right: The right to fail.

It used to be that if you didn't get training or an education, you lived as a poor person and died earlier than most due to lack of ability to improve your situation. You were seen, properly, as a drain on society.

In the mind of the leftist or socialist, it is not your fault that you are poor, it is society's fault. Since society made you poor, it seems logical in the leftist mind that society should pay for some of the things and services that you lack.

While it is true that there will always be those who cannot rely on themselves to eke out an existence, it is also true that MOST PEOPLE relying on entitlement programs are able bodied, capable of working for a living. They have the intelligence to get training or attend courses, thus obtaining better employment to improve their lot in life.

What they lack is sufficient motivation to follow this course. Why? Government (read: taxpayer) entitlement programs.

Since they will always be given rent subsidies, food stamps, health care, etc., they see no good reason to work for that which is being provided free of obligation or effort.

Government has taken away their right to fail. If all these entitlement programs had hard limits on length of benefits, one of two things would happen:

1. The benefit would end, and the recipient, needing food and shelter, would become a productive member of society and start earning a living. This is the path that most of us follow without needing to be on the public dole first. We simply conclude that food and shelter are good, and we work hard to ensure that we will always have them.

2. The recipient, having exhausted his/her government provided entitlements, will complain, plead, beg, or otherwise attempt to reinstate the freebie. If society decides that once your hard limit is reached, there will be no more help, then this person faces the reality of a lack of food and shelter. Refusing to work and become a productive member of society, this person dies.

Cold? Yes, but where is it written that life is fair? You have a right to pursue happiness. You have no right to achieve it.

By allowing generation after generation of people to live in a welfare dependent state, you remove their right to fail. Society foots the bill for these derelicts, and the system is designed to give them no reason to get out.

You do not have a right to an equal share of this country's riches. You only have the right to work your butt off to earn your share.

Remember: Government cannot give anything to anyone that it has not first taken away from someone else.

The Democrats had all the votes they needed to pass ANYTHING that they wanted to. Republicans could have said "no" until they were blue in the face but it would not have made one iota of difference. Any attempt to blame Republicans for stopping legislation is simply a lie. A LIE. Democrats controlled the executive branch and both houses of the legislative branch. Blame them for not turning us into a communist nation more quickly. The Republicans could not and did not stop a blessed thing.

At what point does Obama own this Presidency? If he fails after three years in office, will that also be the fault of Bush and Cheney? After four years? It's amazing how everything that Bush did was his fault. It had nothing to do with what he inherited from Clinton. But Obama? NOTHING is his fault! It's all Bush's fault.

Do you see how disingenuous that argument is?

The elections in November will be very telling. If the Republicans take control of one or both houses, it seems to me that will be a clear sign that the American people do not want what Obama/Pelosi/Reid are peddling.

I have heard the argument that if we Tea Partiers would just stop and look, we'd see that we are fighting against policies that could BENEFIT US!

In this case, the left has the correct read on the situation. We will not trade our liberty and freedom for a government benefit, regardless of how mightily it may improve our "nut-bar right wing, hate-monger...racist" lives.

We live in the greatest nation on the planet. No other culture has achieved what we have. Our success is all the more impressive given our short existence as a nation. All of our achievements can be traced back to a single fact: We have enjoyed more personal freedom, individualism, and liberty than any people before us. It is liberty, more than anything else, that has driven our people unfailingly forward. Our society has led the planet.

How was all this accomplished? By insisting, as our founding fathers designed, on limited self government. I have yet to find a single meritorious argument that disputes this fact. We went farther, faster, than any society before us, and LIBERTY was driving our rocket ship of achievement.

Wow, feels good to get all that off my chest!

Most Tea Baggers are white upper mid 50, 60 and 70 somethings. Over the years they and their government have built impressive entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Part D, Private defined benefit pensions, private pension health care for life, huge home and stock market wealth and other things. They have built up massive obscene national debts to pay for this and engaged in astounding government bailouts to protect it. They have bailed out three car companies (one of them twice), one huge insurance company, the City of New York, the savings and loan industry and now the financial industry. They have bailed out Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae (see huge home wealth above) and continue to do so. Who pays for all this – you guessed it -- the younger generations. They want to abolish the Department of Education because their kids are now grown. They want to abolish other departments because the only ones they use are the Social Security Department and the Medicare Department.

Sure they will tell you that they paid into Social Security and deserve everything they get. What they don’t tell you is that this year the Social Security system paid out more than it took in. They call it a trust fund but it is nothing more than a classic pyramid scheme and the younger generation are about to get hosed. They will tell you that “I paid into Medicare so I deserve everything I get”. What they won’t tell you is that in order to keep the system solvent they will have to reimburse doctors 20% less than they are currently getting. They continue to kick that problem down the road to – you guessed it – the younger generation. They will tell you that I deserve Medicare Part D even though I did NOT pay for it. What they will not tell you is that virtually every person in congress that voted FOR that completely and obscenely fiscally irresponsible bill and is still in congress (and there are a WHOLE lot of them as we typically return about 93% of the incumbents back to office) voted against the current health reform bill AND what they will not tell you is the reason they voted AGAINST the Health Reform bill is not for all the rhetorical reasons (Big Government, fiscally irresponsible, death panels, majority of the people don’t want it, unconstitutional etc) but its because it would take away a small portion of their Medicare entitlement.

Which brings me to the point of this rant. The Tea Baggers will do anything to protect their entitlements. They will call the President a socialist, they will hijack the constitution and bend it to their own way of thinking. They will drum up this Second Amendment hogwash so they have a reason to arm themselves. They really don’t give a hoot about any of it -- they just want to keep their government goodies. And you know what, I don’t blame them. It’s human nature. Every one of us does it. It’s only the hypocrites that don’t admit it.

....and the reason the Dems wanted bipartisonship was because they are too christian.
If they were Republicans they would have crammed everything down our throats and said the Silant Majority wanted it.

When will the working man realize he's being played for a succers and constantly votes to make the rich richer by listening to the shallow narrow minded uninformed made up "fact" rants of multi millionairs like Rush? The Republicans have gotten the fear machine down pat and the sap dems like Obama keep trying to appeal to our better nature with reason, logic and maturity. They don't seem to realise we Americans only respect force.

@Tokem - Lot's of name calling and finger pointing young man. You speak like you don't live in the US. Maybe you don't recognize that this IS a Constitutional Republic. It is this status that is under attack right now. To suggest that it is anything else is just spurious. I guess we do agree on one thing though - consolidation of power in the media is a real problem. Sure hope you open your eyes before it's too late.

@John C - It sounds like you are suggesting that the Tea Party movement is in support of entitlement programs. Clearly you have missed the point of their objections.

@Derek - Really!!??

@all three of you - fellas, The only way forward for our country is to set aside our differences and address our problems as Americans; not as right or left, black or white, rich or poor, old or young etc. There will be time for those kinds of discussions when the stability of this nation is restored. The current administration is not doing that, in fact the Fed has been weakening this country for many years. The corrupt nature of the career politician is at the root of it along with the elite power mongers who run them. They are not interested in left or right. They are interested in owning and controlling everything. They are using the diverse nature of this great country against it and inflaming our differences with abusive blame oriented rhetoric to distract us from what is actually transpiring.

This is a two party system but the left and right argument is pure theater. Politics and Finance have banded together against the average American in a bid for a global corporate governance.

There is a saying -- fix the problem, not the blame.

We would ALL benefit by following that intention.

First off, Tokem, you sound like everything that is anti-American, why do you keep on with your propaganda? Start your own political site in your own country!!!

Next,let's look at what is happening right now. It's time for the blame game to end for all the things done in the past. We can argue about it forever, and we will never all agree. We have to use our heads and work together!!!

What's going on now?? The White House will be going to court a THIRD time to make sure all oil drilling is over. Thousands of jobs will be lost, and our country is beholden to OTHER oil companies in other countries. Venezuela just seized oil drilling rigs that were American,(about 12), and nothing is said or done. We keep buying our gas from Venzuelan gas pumps in this country!

The poor folks on the Gulf Shores continue to suffer with loss of income and more jobs lost, because nothing was done fast enough, and outside countries were not allowed to help. Innovation in the U.S. was not allowed to even be used until the last two weeks.

The New Black Panther Party with disclosure, is making trips to the White House, and their members who harrass and threaten voters with films to prove it, get a free pass from prosecution. I didn't like the part on the Black Panther film clip where the man said,"We have to start killing white babies."

The State of California just went to court and the verdict was that "Yes" the private insurance companies can raise their premiums to help pay for the added coverage, and to stay solvent, with the new healthcare reform laws. Will the premium raises that have been denied in other states now go to court? Those premium raises unless granted, will put private insurance out of business. If something doesn't happen, we will have socialized medicine, and rationed healthcare, within a year from January 2011, when the rates go up.This is why you will see lawsuits by private insurance companies,(because they have to raise their premiums to stay solvent), and why the the states will go bankrupt if the premiums go up. There is nothing short of legislation change that will financially rescue healthcare, and the states financially.

The states have to match the Federal Government Funds for the new healthcare, and medicare. The reason for the states filing lawsuits on the constitutionality of the healthcare laws is that the states know this financial mandate will bankrupt them. Oh yes, they can't go bankrupt, they just have to "not meet their budgets."

Medicare seniors are now being notified that they have no more coverage on medicine, and many of their healthcare needs are no longer going to be taken care of, or at the least major cuts are being taken in coverage. I know of two instances this has already happened. One man, who needed chemotherapy for cancer treatment, was just denied after only two months of cancer treatment.He has no more funding. This may cost his life. There will be many more of these cases.
Many of these newly hired Medicare folks are making rounds in neighborhoods to tell folks they are denied as we speak.

Jobs continue to be a disaster, and unemployment was just cut for extension. What will the job market show now? I dare say that more folks will be losing homes, etc,.. In my area homes over $50,000.00 are not selling. Our home has been on the market for two years, and all the other homes in that modest price range, too. We have people breaking into homes left and right and burglarizing for money. There have been three breakins on our block in the last three weeks, plus one attempt on our house.Folks who wanted to buy our house were denied the bank loan, and I am hearing many other banks are denying home loans.

Foreign leaders from countries that have supported the U.S. in the past are telling our leader to stop spending the money. I went on website to find out what is being said about the U.S. The Russians are saying "Obama spends fake money he doesn't have." All these countries are laughing at us!!

We have a White House cabinet that has the least amount of working experience of any White House Staff in the last 50 years. The majority of the staff are Harvard "Theorists," but have almost nil experience in actual management on any level.
Check the facts for yourself.

Folks are in danger in Arizona and bordering states, and we find out from law enforcement officials in
Arizona and other states that illegal immigrants are coming through their towns with machine guns having gun fights in their towns and high speed chases endangering Americans in their own towns.
The law abiding U.S. Citizens are begging for help and they are denied help to protect their towns. Some of these little towns are more than 80 miles into U.S. soil!!!

Lastly, the folks exempt from paying any taxes or for any of their healthcare according to the new laws are American Indians,(who have their own healthcare already, and I don't have a problem with that),prisoners, and illegal immigrants.

So, anyone who is an illegal immigrant gets free healthcare in this country, folks, no strings attached, and no responsibility. That alone can bankrupt our country.(We pay billions on their healthcare). According to our Federal Laws, no one can be denied medical treatment, so all of the taxes that happen on U.S. citizens as of January 2011, pay also for free healthcare for illegal aliens.

So, do I think Obama is a socialist? You bet I do! I am very ashamed of what is happening to our country! I never thought we would be a laughing stock!! AND I never thought that our own laws would cause our own American Citizens to suffer under heavy taxation, and healthcare cuts to our own care, as U.S. Citizens help pay for those who disrespect our country and our laws.

@Connie I always enjoy your posts

@Frank P.
You misinterpreted me a little. I am suggesting that that the Tea Party movement is in support of *their* entitlements - namely Social Security, Medicare and Medicare Part D. I understand that they would like to do away with other entitlements. I can’t wait to see the discussion on these three issues when the deficit commission report comes out.

I would like to discuss other ideas with you but I guess that will have to wait until things “Stabilize”, whatever that means, whenever that happens and whoever decides things like that.

By the way, are you an “abolish the Fed” type of guy? I would like to here your views on the Fed if you care to share.

Entitlement: a government program providing
benefits to members of a specified group; also :
funds supporting or distributed by such a program
Merriam-Webster

I am amazed at the divergence of responses herein. Typical citizenry that cannot agree on anything. Those who have eyes to see and those who have eyes and yet are blind.

It is sad to see our once great land in such straights. I do not recognize the land I was born in. I am embarrassed by how the silent majority has allowed this to happen.

I guess the dollar god was to good pass up while the once great nation went/goes to hell in hand basket.

I seriously doubt anyone here even knows the Constitution for this once great land has not been use for more than a hundred years.

Our government is a sham and hokes, a fraud if you will.

The US government is corporation and every department in it is a corporation, as is every state, county and town/city and department therein.

Out young men and women go to war, fight and die and come home disfigured, crippled and broken for the greed of a corporation who has no interest in anyone's welfare but their own profit.

It is nothing new, it has been the work of designing men since this nation was founded to subvert and overthrow it, no matter how long it may take.

Banking cartels have been at work to master the world for centuries. We have been warned from the beginning this would happen.

"A republic, if you can keep it."

When we became more concerned with increasing our standard of living less concerned with what was going on and educating ourselves we left the barn door open for the horse to get out or for the camel to get his nose in, and it is in. In fact the camel is in the tent and now the owner is outside looking in and wondering what on earth happened and how to get the camel back out.

There is no republic any longer. Any time an organization will not enforce it's own laws, it ceases to exist and so it is with the land. It does not and has not enforced it's own laws from almost the very beginning.

We are brainwashed and dummied down from the "public fool system" until we get what we have above. Those who nothing about anything and yet think they know everything about everything.

Opinions are like ass holes, every one has one. And what worth is an uneducated opinion? None whatsoever.

There is no fixing this nation without blood flowing now and flow it will before this is over. This is just the beginning of homeless and joblessness. Will be on a par with Mexico before we done, mark my words.

The people are waking up, but they will not do anything.

The states are only a part of the US by compact. Each state is a sovereign country, with the ability to enact it's own laws and enforce them.

Arizona can pass any law they like that does not tread on peoples sovereignty. So what if Obama does not like it. He can go fish. How is he going to enforce a court ruling if he gets one? send in the Marines?

Some states have already declared their own sovereignty and told the feds to butt out of their business. Why are they not making headlines?

Only because we playing with Obama's voting block.

I suggest if you have not, you get your food storage in and any other provisions you value that you may need for the future and encourage your friends and neighbors do the same thing, while you can.

Oh yes, entitlement. What is an entitlement without which someone is not obligated to give up something so someone can collect their entitlement?

Question for you all.

If I cannot require something from you, some object or action and you cannot require it of me, can we get together and authorize someone else to do it to us or to some other third party?

Obviously not. And yet we sit around let this third party, Legislators/government to do just that and condone it. And it does not make us one whit better than them when we do this.

Welcome to the United States of "Amerika" folks.

Perhaps this video will open your eyes to who the real impostor is, out if his own mouth.

http://www.resistnet.com/video/not-natural-born-truth

I can't see the cartoon. Where is the link? Thanks.

TOKEM isn't from the US:

"...you folks in the US to find credible information with your media concentrated in so few hands."

People from other countries must be jealous of the US. I guess they want us to be more like them.

What COUNTRY are you from TOKEM?

Does OBAMA know your address so he knows where to send PAYMENT?

OBAMA seems to have a BLANK CHECK policy when it comes to foreign countries.

In my experience, those who SCREAM the loudest on what the GOV'T isn't doing about the ENVIRONMENT, are the ones I see in the grocery stores using plastic bags. And the FIRST to heave the cardboard boxes in the alley next to the garbage. (Even though they have their own PERSONAL RECYCLE container sitting UNUSED in their carport.)

When you put money in the BANK, does it become an ENTITLEMENT when you want to withdraw the money?

SOCIAL SECURITY was crammed down our throats by DEMOCRATS. We said, "NO!" THEY CRAMMED.
MEDICARE was crammed down our throats! We said, "NO!" THEY CRAMMED!

They TOOK our money and then said,"when you reach a certain age you can retire and get your money back. They changed the retirement age. Who can get a job up to the age of 65+ these days? (Maybe at WalMart if we can secure the border from illegals.)

They said NO ONE would touch the money.
They added people who did NOT contribute, but get money from Social Security anyway?
They are continually "borrowing" money from Social Security?

They said, "you couldn't spend THAT MUCH money in the Social Security coffers in a million years."

Now they say we are running out of money and they are not re-paying the money they borrowed.

Now it's called Entitlement by Democrats and Obamabots.

When you put money in the BANK, does it become an ENTITLEMENT when you want to withdraw the money?

SOCIAL SECURITY was crammed down our throats by DEMOCRATS. We said, "NO!" THEY CRAMMED.
MEDICARE was crammed down our throats! We said, "NO!" THEY CRAMMED!

They TOOK our money and then said,"when you reach a certain age you can retire and get your money back. They changed the retirement age. Who can get a job up to the age of 65+ these days? (Maybe at WalMart if we can secure the border from illegals.)

They said NO ONE would touch the money.
They added people who did NOT contribute, but get money from Social Security anyway?
They are continually "borrowing" money from Social Security?

They said, "you couldn't spend THAT MUCH money in the Social Security coffers in a million years."

Now they say we are running out of money and they are not re-paying the money they borrowed.

Now it's called Entitlement by Democrats and Obamabots.

@John C - People generally want what they have paid for, or been forced to pay into. I don't see how that would apply only to Tea Party members. What other entitlements are you referring to? And while I can't speak for anyone but myself. I think Social Security and Medicare are bankrupt hallmarks of the inability of the current incarnation of the Fed to be trusted with much other than the protection of the boarders (another failing grade) and delivering the mail (yet another) - yikes, what ARE they good for???

Abolish the Fed? Nah. Abolish career politicians and the corruption that comes with them, follow the Constitution, and the fed will right itself. I know, I know I'm oversimplifying, but in essence, that's what I feel.

Frank P.,
Do I sense a bit of agreement on the tyranny of the Social Security, Medicare and Medicare Part D programs?

As I stated before I don’t blame people for defending their entitlements. My beef with the Tea Party is that they are hypocrites, constantly harping about big government programs and deficits while defending the biggest and most fiscally bankrupt of them all.

I am constantly amazed that Bush and the Republican congress gets a free pass on the biggest government giveaway EVER - Medicare Part D. There was no attempt to fund this program and the people that enjoy this benefit never paid a DIME to it. At least there was an attempt to pay for the recent Healthcare bill by reductions in Medicare and --- wait for it --- requiring people to purchase their health insurance.

What entitlements do I think the Tea Party want to get rid of? My guess it that you would not shead a tear if Medicad was abolished. How about Welfare? Unemployment insurance.

Finally, why is the Tea Party so happy to have the tax payers clean-up after polluters. We have had to spend an entire generation paying to clean-up superfund and other polluted sites. Companies and the people that use their products should be the ones to pay for that clean-up not taxpayers and future generations.

Frank, in an early post you said that I couldn’t or wouldn’t see where the country was headed. I am more concerned with where this country has been and do not want it to repeat the same mistakes.

Hypocrite: a person who acts in contradiction to
his or her stated beliefs or feelings
---- Merriam-Webster

I forgot to add one more thing about the free pass given Bush and the Repiblican Congress.

They got rid of PAYGO for crying out loud!! It took a Democratic Congress and Democratic President to restore it.

How do you justify that?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely -- on both sides of the aisle.

You are correct John, I see Social Security and Medicare as part of the Progressive agenda, an agenda which leads away from the Constitution and the Freedoms the Founders intended. The Progressive movement has been at work for some time now through many administrations. It isn't a party per se. In fact it is an concept that is at work in all political parties. Just as the Tea Party is also a concept that is at work across the board as the Progressives opposite number.

I think it is a waste of time and energy to point fingers at the R's or D's because, as I have said before, I think that left and right today is mostly theater played out by progressives in those parties, intended to distract and stall the citizenry in it's quest for freedom.

Not all Progressives believe all the same things. Not all Tea Party folks believe the same things. So when you tell me anything that Tea Party folks believe that is more specific than the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, and Freedom -- then I have to ask you - Which ones?

Forest - Trees

Tim, There are people who are going to cry racism, when the conversation isn't even about racism. Thankfully, there are African Americans, that know the facts and do not look through a blurry lens. They see things for what they are. Wow, it's amazing how easily someone will do that, just to get others not to look too closely at the truth! But, for the most part, it doesn't really work too well, most folks are smarter than that. Hold on to your convictions, because black, white, purple, or pink, you know you are not alone. Last I looked, we were still free to say what is on our minds, and we do need change, but, not like Bush or Obama. Certainly not, throw money at and it will go away. The federal Government was not set up to do that, and in all these years, it has not worked. Teenagers know that either Government (working people) or grandma will raise all their babies. Right now it is impossible to blame people for not having jobs. But, everybody knows even the Liberals know that people have lived off of the worker's salary even in good econ. times.