Obama calls the government insurance programs...

..of Social Security and Medicare by the same name that the rightwing gives them: "entitlements".

WTF is wrong with him?
:mad:

Sadly, the word "entitlement" has suffered the same fate as "liberal".

Only ignorant people -- including many Rethugs -- don't realize that Medicare is called an entitlement because people who receive it earned it by virtue of their hard work. It's not charity -- they're entitled to it.

to receive benefits!

Nothing wrong with him. The GOP wingnuts have turned the word "entitlement" into a prejorative, a.k.a., "welfare."

I'll bet you don't although I'm sure you feel entitled to benefits if you get in an accident. Social Security and Medicare are insurance for pensions and health care in old age, just like your life insurance is, and that's how they should be referred to.

Most people need health care or will need health care at some point in their lives.

Here's the difference between you and me: I don't give the wingnuts power by using their own rhetoric against Democrats.

These ARE indeed ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS. Sorry! That's how they were conceived; that's what they are.

When people work and pay into the system, yes indeed, they are ENTITLED to receive benefits. That's the truth and no wingnut/Teabagger hate speech can ever change that fact.

into the hands, rhetoric and code talk of the Republicans, who are today probably going to get them gift wrapped in exchange for raising the debt ceiling or so the liberal talk radio is asserting. I'm stunned that Obama has offered these "entitlements" for deep cuts. Good work liberals in letting "entitlement" become a dirty word alongside "liberal".

It isn't a gift, or charity to its receivers: it's something they worked for and earned: thus they're entitled to it.

Good luck with owning it.

by now, I don't know what to tell you. At the beginning of the health care debate, he called the private health care industry (insurance, PhRMA etc.) one sixth of the economy and that it couldn't be messed with. That told me back then that industry will always come first with his White House and everything else second.

At least, I hope not...........

The answer is obvious

Not surprising, because he's an intelligent, well-educated man.

Stealth candidate.

:eyes:

You just complain because it was a negative comment on Obama.

The upshot of your post would be that you, too, would think of medicare and social security as "entitlement" programs. It is a crock that you would call that a "legal" term.

Shame.

I agree in principle! The Republican's have turned that into a term which means taking from middle and upper class and giving it to those who didn't plan or who are lazy. A couple of Webster's definitions are, "a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract or a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group". Isn't that what it is?
I agree with you, President Obama really should have used different words all though "technically" he was correct.
May be we should use the term using Webster's other definition "the belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges". Which is what the rich feels.
Democrats need to use the "King's Language" in the same way as the Republicans do.

of turning words into swears, they did it with liberal, they tried with Obamacare and now entitlements.

If they were calling it charity, there would be reason to complain.

Jeebus, people: don't you know what the legal and government definition of entitlement means? I suppose you also thought "the cock crowed twice" was cause for giggling.

"The Supreme Court has established that no one has any legal right to Social Security benefits. The Court decided, in Flemming v. Nestor (1960), that "entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractual right". In that case, Ephram Nestor, a Bulgarian immigrant to the United States who made contributions for covered wages for the statutorily required "quarters of coverage" was nonetheless denied benefits after being deported in 1956 for being a member of the Communist party."

"To engraft upon the Social Security System a concept of "accrued property rights" would deprive it of the flexibility and <363 U.S. 603, 604> boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands and which Congress probably had in mind when it expressly reserved the right to alter, amend or repeal any provision of the Act. Pp. 610–611."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_%28United_States%29#The_Supreme_Court_and_the_evolution_of_Social_Security

You gonna stop using the word liberal now to describe yourself?

These were called "entitlements" before it became a right wing perjorative. Entitlements are good. And the word entitlement is good. And I'll use it in the correct context. And I won't give 2 shits how some dumb right wing Rush listener uses the word. I'll tell them I stand for defending and strengthening ENTITLEMENTS and I'll be proud of it.

Schools are failing, teachers are lazy, the 60s were a time of excess, "free trade," etc.

It's hard to think of a single right wing talking point that he has not embraced.