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Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social programs?

Do you agree with Obama?

  • Total voters
    67
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

mac said:
That's how you summarize the natural order of human existence? Lemmings?
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Do use a pole vault to leap over these vast chasms?
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

I would agree with the President's comments. Firstly, it is ridiculous to consider that people will voluntarily provide the assistance needed to help the most needy members of our society in the same volume as the government does. Secondly, and I think someone already said this, a society can best be judged by how it treats the weakest members. Also, the assistance provided helps provide the potential for these members to no longer need assistance. I think it is our social programs and our commitment to helping those who struggle, throughout the world, that makes us the great society that we are.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

CaptainCourtesy said:
I would agree with the President's comments. Firstly, it is ridiculous to consider that people will voluntarily provide the assistance needed to help the most needy members of our society in the same volume as the government does. Secondly, and I think someone already said this, a society can best be judged by how it treats the weakest members. Also, the assistance provided helps provide the potential for these members to no longer need assistance. I think it is our social programs and our commitment to helping those who struggle, throughout the world, that makes us the great society that we are.
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Well said!!

end of thread/
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

Mellie said:
We're talking about all social programs.
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So the question is not about what Obama said, but about your extrapolation including all social programs?
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

MaggieD said:
Define great. ;)

I think a country can be judged, just like a person, by how "he treats the least of us." I would hate to live in a country that didn't care enough for its poor or its seniors to provide them with the basic necessities of life.
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There are many ways to accomplish that, and the way its' done now is not the right way.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

CaptainCourtesy said:
I would agree with the President's comments. Firstly, it is ridiculous to consider that people will voluntarily provide the assistance needed to help the most needy members of our society in the same volume as the government does. Secondly, and I think someone already said this, a society can best be judged by how it treats the weakest members. Also, the assistance provided helps provide the potential for these members to no longer need assistance. I think it is our social programs and our commitment to helping those who struggle, throughout the world, that makes us the great society that we are.
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The problem is that social programs that provide subsistence do not foster independence...but rather, dependence.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

The $74,000,000,000,000.00 Hole known as Medicare.........

The $13,000,000,000,000.00 Hole known as Social Security.......

Yeah they made America Great alright.....if by great you mean Bankrupt........
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Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

lpast said:
I didnt participate in this poll because I dont like either answer to be honest...the truth is something different.
Social Security is not a pension plan lets get that straight...the average social security check is 1177.00 who the HELL can retire on that..you cant get a furnished room with no toilet and laundry privledges for that in the entire northeast...So lets not go teaparty here and exaggerate.

Take away medicare and give a 5000 dollar credit like ryan wants to do wont work...you cant buy insurance on 1,177 a month plus 5 grand a year when your 69 yrs old and retired, christ in a few years you wont be able to buy a weeks worth of groceries.....You will pay paying for the old baskets anyway and paying more and through the nose. WHO is going to pay when a 70 yr old gets cancer makes 1,177 a month social security LESS the fees the teaparty wants to impose and who cant afford private health insurance with the voucher ryan wants to give him...WHO and who pays for the medicine...YOU thats WHO.
Any of you people that BELIEVE that you can get rid of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid keep allowing millions of illegal immigrants in here taking all the jobs and keep ALLOWING corporations to ship the jobs to china for a few extra bucks are just bending over and accepting large vocal objects from the teaparty....you will have mass's of people unable to take care of themselves then one of two things happen...you Pay and you Pay WAY MORE or they revolt and kill all the rich people then everyone has squat.. Crime will soar...
This is all fabricated teapary spoiled brat rich kid crap from people that never had a bad day...who think they can just say SCREW EVERYONE I got mine and im keeping it all and then live happily ever after rich and stuffed like a pig....wishful thinking.
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Where do I start in responding to this incoherent mess? Hmmmm. First off, I think you need to look up the definition of a pension. Social security is a universal pension program. Just because its not enough to cover all of someone's living expenses, does not mean it is not a pension.

pension - definition of pension by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Next, you need to work on your reading comprehension. Where did I say we should get rid of Social Security or Medicare? I said in my post that most folks DO NOT object to a basic safety net. People in this thread have been saying the fact that we have a safety net is part of what makes us great, and I simply pointed out that both Medicare and Social Security go far beyond a safety net and have become universal (i.e. regardless of actual need) old age benefits.

I certainly said nothing about illegal immigration so I have no idea why you're ranting about that here. As for the Tea Party, one of that group's biggest short comings in my mind is that they overwhelmingly DON'T want meaningful reform to Social Security and Medicare. The Tea Party crying about deficits and not wanting to touch the huge entitlement programs that are contributing to our debt more and more each pasing year is ludicrious.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

I can't stand Obama.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

marduc said:
Do use a pole vault to leap over these vast chasms?
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What's the vast chasm?

Is it your issue that America is the leader of the world? Is it simply jealousy that drives your comments? America is the third largest population in the world, the largest economy, and the only superpower. Get over it or help destroy it. Your choice.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

I completely disagree with his statements, what made America great was the freedoms provided and the can do entrepreneurial spirit that has turned a land mass into a superpower in a few hundred years. It is only with this current implementation of social programs that the possibility of opportunity is disappearing. Let me make my own decisions, insure mine decisions and those around me do not infringe upon my basic rights, organize our defence both militarily and in regards to the constitution, that is all the federal government is for, other than that let the states handle it.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

Mellie said:
“‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities,” Obama said. “We are a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.”[/I]

Do you agree that we wouldn't be a great country without SS, Medicare and Medicaid?
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of course i do. the country wasn't great under the Founders, under Lincoln, as we won WWI... Freedom, inalienable rights of man, representative government, rule of law.... none of these things are nearly the equal of a centrally administered system of wealth redistribution. We weren't "Great" until the Nixon administration...

:roll: seriously, Obama should fire whoever wrote that line.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

Mellie said:
You're right. No one believes we shouldn't help the needy. However, there is a difference between individual, voluntary charity and forced charity from the government.
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and the absence or presence of either does not determine asa sole qualification whether or not we are a great nation. what an idiotic thing for a man who is supposed to be a Constitutional Scholar to say.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

mac said:
What's the vast chasm?

Is it your issue that America is the leader of the world? Is it simply jealousy that drives your comments? America is the third largest population in the world, the largest economy, and the only superpower. Get over it or help destroy it. Your choice.
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the vast chasm(s) are what you keep leaping to assign positions, and to make baseless accusations towards me based upon a post that was completely non verbal. From a single Far Side cartoon and a smiley (these usually denote humor and should be a clue to not take it so seriously) you have somehow managed to read volumes into it, and to introduce new "issues" that I have with every subsequent post you have made. These are the chasms you are leaping, you are making insane mental leaps and reading way too much into it, and are quite off base.

I was making a joke that other nations were lemmings following our lead (playing off from, and intending it to be semi-supportive of your comment).. nothing more nothing less, and even that was intended to be taken only half seriously (that smiley thing I inserted) - yet somehow it seems that without reading a single word you have determined that I am "one of them", driven by jealousy, apparently hating that America is a leader of the world, and need to get over these "issues" that you pulled out of thin air.

The misunderstanding is no problem, it happens, but I really do not appreciate the false accusations or your unwarranted hostile tone and telling me to get over something that you fabricated all by your lonesome. Anyhow.. my apologies to others in the thread for the side tracking this has caused, that was not my intention at all.
 
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Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

pbrauer said:
I agree with President Obama and I think the majority of Americans agree with him as well.
This whole dust up is typical of the far right wing. They tried this bull**** with Michelle Obama when Barack announced his candidacy for president, and he kicked their ass good.. It didn' work then and it won't work now.
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the looters outnumber the producers
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

ElCid said:
I can't stand Obama.
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Does that mean you do not agree with him? :)
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

I disagree. I think Medicare and social programs are good, but they aren't what makes our country great. I fear that many social programs are actually decreasing how great our country is while productive ones go underfunded. I disagree with Obama.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

I agree with him (on this issue). We as a society cannot turn our backs on people who don't measure up, financially, because of age, health, inability to support their children for legitimate reasons. I don't want to live in a country where the poor are left to go hungry, the old and ill are left to rot on the sidewalk, and the disabled are unable to get care they need to survive.

Also, I don't want to hear about how private donations should take over for welfare, medicare and social security. They wouldn't come close to paying the cost of living expenses and medical costs of the millions of sick, poor and disabled in this country. Hell, people here give a smaller percent in charitable contributions overall than just about any other western nation on earth. I'll be damned if I want to put the lives of our most vulnerable in the hands of such international cheapskates.

Yes, cheapskates, proven every time someone bellyaches about "their tax dollars paying those lazy welfare queens" and "old people too stupid to save for their own retirement" (which translates into "too stupid to realize that inflation would turn a nest egg that would have provided a 20-year retirement in 1960 into the amount a middle-class banker requires annually just to survive.")

So, yeah. I agree with Obama on this.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

DiAnna said:
I agree with him (on this issue). We as a society cannot turn our backs on people who don't measure up, financially, because of age, health, inability to support their children for legitimate reasons. I don't want to live in a country where the poor are left to go hungry, the old and ill are left to rot on the sidewalk, and the disabled are unable to get care they need to survive.

Also, I don't want to hear about how private donations should take over for welfare, medicare and social security. They wouldn't come close to paying the cost of living expenses and medical costs of the millions of sick, poor and disabled in this country. Hell, people here give a smaller percent in charitable contributions overall than just about any other western nation on earth. I'll be damned if I want to put the lives of our most vulnerable in the hands of such international cheapskates.

Yes, cheapskates, proven every time someone bellyaches about "their tax dollars paying those lazy welfare queens" and "old people too stupid to save for their own retirement" (which translates into "too stupid to realize that inflation would turn a nest egg that would have provided a 20-year retirement in 1960 into the amount a middle-class banker requires annually just to survive.")

So, yeah. I agree with Obama on this.
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so you agree that we were not great until the Nixon Administration put the Johnson Administrations' Great Society programs into full practice? we have only been a Great Nation since the late-60's / early-70's?
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

Yes perhaps it has made us into a great country as some would categorize it but only for a limited time. The social programs filled withn free money, guarantees, jobs, free health care and pills, well it's awesome but like a ponzi scheme it built on a house of cards although for those who entered it early they will benefit. Now those who benefit from this think it's great and will swear by it and promote it for the next generation, all the while it is costing more money that is being put in and will eventually collapse. Those who benefited first but never put into it, also at the time people didn't live as long and politicians weren't eager to dip into the pot of limited gold. This country can longer afford this and with those dependent on these programs there will be the devil to pay on both sides of this issue. So we must all ourselves. social programs or our country's stability.
 
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Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

it's classic Obama though. Our Founding Ideals don't make us great. Redistribution of wealth does.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

mac said:
The problem is that social programs that provide subsistence do not foster independence...but rather, dependence.
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Depends on the individual. And I do think that some of the programs need to be altered to provide more encouragement for independence. That does not change that their mere existence demonstrates the greatness, civilly, and compassion that is the US.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

Mellie said:
“‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities,” Obama said. “We are a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.”[/I]

Do you agree that we wouldn't be a great country without SS, Medicare and Medicaid?
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No. Those commitments are imposed on the people at the point of a gun, which is what enforces US tax law.
 
Re: Do you agree with Obama that we wouldn't be a great country without social progra

MaggieD said:
Define great. ;)

I think a country can be judged, just like a person, by how "he treats the least of us." I would hate to live in a country that didn't care enough for its poor or its seniors to provide them with the basic necessities of life.
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What about a nation which creates programs that allows the child the ability to sidestep his responsiblity to care for his parents and foist that obligation onto complete strangers?

What about a nation that allows it's future seniors to saddle their future grand children with $100,000,000,000,000 in debt to support them in their old age, when many of those same seniors are mentally and physically able to continue working for another decade, but choose not to?

Government assistance programs do not define the greatness of a people. The nation's greatness is measured by how it's people help each other without government involvement.

If government programs are a measure of a nation's greatness, then the Soviet Union was the greatest nation in the history of the world.
 
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