What?

The poor would be well fucked if the government didn't help provide. I really hope you aren't naive enough to think that these ideas would help the poor, they would only help the wealthy.

I grieve for humanity.

Rath,

Please explain to me how the systems in the United States provide actual benefits to those that use pay into them, and to a level that cannot be reached in private systems.

For example, Rath, did you know that the average Medicare recipient requires nearly 4 times as much funding as the average recipient of government health care in your home country of New Zealand?

Did you also know that, in America, if you earn more than $22,000 per year, you will pay more into our pension plan than you will recieve?

I must ask you, Rath: Why should I support a system that is grossly incompotent? Why should people of any class pay into systems that damange people's income? I want poor, middle and rich classes to make more money. This can be done through payroll reforms, which encompass medicare/medicaid, social security, and such. If a person in poverty could make an additional $2,000 or $3,000 a year via payroll reforms, why not allow them to have that in their pockets today, rather than force them to live return-to-return?

There's a difference between arguing to change an existing structure and arguing for their utter elimination. The candidate in the OP is doing that, and you said you agreed with him. Rebuilding the system to something more efficient i can agree with, the problem is that the efficiency people tend to get lumped together with the nuts that just want to do budget slash-and-burn (though i note that they never want to touch many of the excesses in military)

There is room for debate on the effectiveness of programs, certainly, but not on whether they (or some program that would serve as a fitting substitute) should exist or not

I'm not saying the systems in America work very well or are efficient. I'm saying your assertion that cutting everybodies taxes equally and then cutting government funding for these systems will somehow help the poor is just plain wrong.

Cutting taxes across the board helps the rich the most while cutting welfare systems hurts the poor the most. Your suggestion that cutting the taxes and cutting the welfare is going to help the poor just doesn't make sense to me.

Over 40% of the U.S population pays no federal income tax.  How exactly does cutting taxes help them?  I believe you need to have less ideological purity and mmore real data.  As far as up to individuals, unless I get help. I stand a distinct chance of never becpming employable for health reasons.  I was told I need over $2000 to cover a gap insurgey expenses that I don't have.  By the way, the costs to administer Medicare is far less than the costs toadminister private insurance.

The question them becomes: How do you reform/fix a system that has refused change for decades? Social security issues have been around for decades. Everyone knew that the system was screwing payees over, but no one has wanted to change it. My advocation is for reform. The issue is that the reform needed to fix social security requires removing it from federal control, into privatization. For example, the states have much MUCH better systems for their employees, as does the actual federal government, because it relies on private retirement principals (e.g. investing the money into stocks, bonds, real estate, ect to return the pensioner a tangible return).

I know I argue a radical change by eliminating the system, but I only advocate it so a better system can be put in place. I'm not saying 'get rid of it, and let people struggle on their own'. I am saying 'Allow people to invest how they want for retirement'. With health care, the issue is a bit deeper....Payments to doctors and facilities via Medicare HAS to be radically reformed for it to work. Unfortunately, no politician wants to touch it, along with other entitlements because voters fear too much.

Where did I advocate cutting all welfare programs? I mentioned only entitlement programs that rip off the taxpayer, namely Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security as being the top entitlement culprits.

Poor people pay taxes. When I was making $10,000 a year as a park caretaker, I paid taxes. When I made $30,000 a year, I paid taxes. Yes, I got most or all of my FICA taxes back, but I still had to pay payroll taxes! I still paid 8.5% to social security! I still paid 3.0% to medicare/medicaid!

I believe we need to cut payroll taxes, which hurt the poor and middle class the most. Social security and medicare are capped for those that earn more than $100,000 which makes the argument that it benefits the rich the most, a false argument. If these mandatory taxes can be cut or removed, it would free up a lot of money (about 11.5%) for those in poverty to invest and get better health care.

mrstickball, how well is the current 401K system working to insure people can retire?

Payroll Taxes.

You may not pay into FICA, but you will pay into social security and medicare, regardless of income. That is where the pain comes to those barely making a living. Furthermore, even if you don't pay federal taxes, it is done by taking money from you today, and giving it back to you without interest at a later day. That damages poor and middle class workers that may need that money today, and are forced to either borrow, or go without.

I must also ask: If overhead is so much cheaper for government insurance, why does private insurance cost about 45% less per enrollment than Medicare in the US?