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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (680)	6/11/2005 12:47:33 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 544125

Well then, I agree with you. And I agree with CR and Ionesco about getting more mentally ill people off the streets for their own good. And I agree with KH that SS should be means-tested and tilted to those in need. I've never seen exact figures saying how much SS is paid to people with incomes over $50,000 apart from SS but it would be interesting. I recently had a family member draw several hundred thousand dollars in Medicare expenses in an ultimately futile battle to keep him alive - I think he deserved the effort but his company insurance should have been the source, not just a supplemental backup while taxpayers footed most of the bill. A retired professional should have paid enough into an insurance pool to get top-flight care later on at private sector expense. I'm just a really agreeable guy tonight. Or everyone here is being disgustingly reasonable. Hooray!

To: Rambi who wrote (680)	6/11/2005 1:17:10 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 544125

How often have you heard some advocate or another lament that the government is not doing enough and children in America are going to bed hungry at night (presumably by the hundreds of thousand if not millions). More must be done, they say. More money is needed. Now. The federal school lunch program started in 1946. More than 28 million children a day participate. The federal breakfast program serves 7.5 million children a day at 72,000 schools, institutions and child care centers. I think it reasonable to assume, then, that the only real problem is dinner. More than 10 million households receive food stamps in the United States, with an average monthly benefit of $86 per person within the household. (http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/faqs.htm#8 ) No, there won't be filet mignon on the table, but no one need go to be hungry either. Is it unreasonable to conclude that that is sufficient to provide 7 dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts a week? I think not. What could they possibly do with more money? Provide door-to-door delivery service? Employ personal cooks?