Isn't "means testing" something associated with collecting welfare benefits

[NNN0LHI]

Social Security is not a welfare program. It is something a worker pays into for our retirement. This is pure bullshit. What comes next? A "workfare" program where one will need to work so many hours a week to be eligible to collect their SS check? Boosh and his Rethuglican friends can bite me on this idea.

Don

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Yep, I thought the same thing. They are trying to convert SS to

a welfare program to kill it.

Means testing adds lots of program costs (you have to hire people to document income/assests) and then of course to investigate and prosecute fraud.....

It's bogus.


formatting on edit.

[whistle]

2. Well it certainly comes by: "From each according to their means...

...to each according to their needs." -- Karl Marx

But then there is also this passage from the New Testiment:

<snip>
From Acts 4:32-37 - Holy Bible

Acts 4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
Acts 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Acts 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
Acts 35 They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Acts 36 There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement").
Acts 37 He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Could this be where Bush is coming from? I would say that this opens the door to raising the ceiling on FICA payments to include everyone who earns a wage. None of this $90,000.00 crap, raise it to the level of CEOs who make $230 million++.

[JDPriestly]

3. Precisely.

The means test is the first step in creating distrust of the Social Security system. Any Democrat in the Senate or House who falls for this ploy deserves to be challenged by a REAL DEMOCRAT in his or her next election.

First comes the means test, then marginalization and mockery. Then comes minimizing the amounts of federal revenue paid into Social Security. Before long, Social Security will be destroyed.

That's how the Republicans do away with programs. They did it to SSI. They're doing it to public education and the NIH. That is how they will destroy the national will and our sense of being a nation. This is a plot against America -- against our social fabric. They want to tear holes in the economic web that makes us one people. They plan to divide us and conquer us.

That is how feudal societies are formed. Social structures that protect the weak fail -- due to internal or external factors. When individuals feel isolated and alone and their community is too weak to protect them, they are easily dominated by those who are brutish and greedy enough to take charge and claim to own everything. Soon, the serfs are grateful just to work for the glory of the masters.

Read Ayn Rand. She set forth the conservative philosophy. According to her, strength equals greed and lack of compassion. The strong inherit the earth. Problem is that philosophy is directly imposed to Christianity. Therein lies the miracle of Bush's compassionate conservatism. He has managed to harness Christians to the Randwagon. Amazing feat of doubletalk. And here we are.

[SoCalDem]

4. This is their "first bite".. They love to nibble the edges of

popular programs, and after a time, it's a shell of its former self, and of course "needs to be totally reformed"...

It's also a way to further pit people against each other.. Instead of everyone getting SS (even the rich), now "rich & poor" will be re-defined, and everyone will suspect the other of getting "too much" or "more than they deserve"..