An "entitlement" is a social program which cannot be touched or significantly altered without causing de-election to those who change it. Social security, medicare, medicaid, these are "entitlements".
They also represent the largest line item in the federal budget.
So what's going to happen? Even if we somehow manage to weather the coming collapse of the dollar--and I would not bet on it--ObamaCare will finish the job. Social security is already on the verge of being broke.
Our single largest creditor is warning us to stop the spending spree. If China stops buying US debt, what happens to us? Where does the money come from to pay for all the deficit spending that ObamaCare is going to lay on us?
The Democrats don't care about reducing the entire nation to poverty as long as they get control. They won't be freezing in the dark, anyway; that kind of thing will be for the serfs in flyover country.
This stuff is unsustainable, the people who are foisting it on us know that it's unsustainable, and they don't care.
The best/worst part of it? Of the 46 million people who are without health insurance only 23 million will be covered by ObamaCare. Half of the people ObamaCare is supposed to help will not be helped by it.
We were told that it was an emergency that these 46 million people were uninsured and that something had to be done to rectify this unfair and horrendous injustice. And the program foisted on us isn't going to help more than half of them.
*sigh* We are so boned.
* * *
Senator Robert Byrd, ex-Klansman extraordinaire, has apparently begun the slide into senility. He's a senator from a state which has a significant portion of its economy based in coal mining, and he's starting to talk down the coal industry.
Not smart.
* * *
I wish I could say this was surprising, but it's not.
My own experiences as a Target employee are enough for me to know this isn't a hyped-up story. Look: like any corporation, Target doesn't want to pay unemployment, and it has to trim its workforce due to the crappy economy. What do you think they do when it comes to that?
Well, they trump up little things, that's what they do; and they pull stupid crap such as enforcing a stupid policy without reminding the employees of it. Then they get to fire people "for cause", and their unemployment premiums don't rise.
Kind of like firing a guy because he didn't take a pallet of paper towels to the floor....
* * *
This is why Democrats keep getting elected:
"Sex is just sex and feeling good things there, not about conceiving"--I'm amazed she spelled "conceiving" correctly, considering that she's apparently so freakin' stupid she doesn't understand what sex is for.
Jesus.
* * *
The post light out by the driveway has been blowing out a lot lately.
After I put a light sensor in, I think we ran the same light bulb for a couple of years. Then the guys who were taking down the trees smacked it, and now the housing leaks when it rains.
Cold water plus hot light bulb equals broken glass, equals burned-out light bulb.
So I put a flourescent bulb out there. It means doing away with the sensor, but flourescent bulbs are less prone to breaking when a little cold water drips on them--the glass is thicker, for one. It worked fine, and as a bonus it was much brighter than the 75 watt incandescent it replaced.
Last night, it wouldn't turn on.
So I took another one out there and swapped them; the one in the fixture was soaking wet. The fresh one came on right away and stayed on the entire night, despite the continuing snow.
The wet one got put on a paper towel in a safe place to dry, overnight; and just now I tried it out, and it worked. Ha.
I don't know if it would have worked if it had gotten wet while it was on, though. Still, score one for CF bulbs.