Let's Say We Jettison SS and Medicare/aid 100%. Will That Improve the Nation, Make it Great Again?

[WinkyDink]

HELL, NO.

After the oligarchy gets that $$, who in their right mind imagines it will be used to build factories here, or in any other way improve the lot of the citizenry?

If the govt cannot see fit to spend our tax monies on the most basic need---our health, our well-being, our very LIVES---it surely will not use our tax monies to benefit us in any less basic and necessary way.

IOW: If these 3 programs are in any way diminished---whether by actual reductions in payments (to providers, patients, or recipients), or by raised age-limits, or by "means testing" (you might be surprised at how you might qualify as "not in need"), or by any other ways devised by the SuperGang of 12---

You will never see that money again in these forms.

In the form of a new aircraft carrier, maybe. In the form of more TSA technology, probably.

But if the keystones of the New Deal and the Great Society are dismantled, well, I think we know what happens to edifices at that point.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/5129.html

http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/publish/article_104.shtml
The Social Security Act Amendments was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965, in Independence, MO. It established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, and Medicaid, a health insurance program for the poor.

In 1965, the passage of the Social Security Act Amendments, popularly known as Medicare, resulted in a basic program of hospital insurance for persons aged 65 and older, and a supplementary medical insurance program to aid the elderly in paying doctor bills and other health care bills. It was funded by a tax on the earnings of employees, matched by contributions by employers, and was well received. In the first three years of the program, nearly 20 million beneficiaries enrolled in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
Major amendments were also made to Social Security in 1965 and 1967 which significantly increased benefits, expanded coverage, and established new programs to combat poverty and raise living standards.<11>

[brooklynite]

1. Since we're not going to, why debate it?