Budget Battle to Be Followed by an Even Bigger Fight

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Congress has yet to settle its first budget fight of the year but is already about to move on to an even more consequential fiscal clash.

Even as the two parties struggled over the weekend to reach a deal on federal spending for the next six months and avert a government shutdown at the end of the week, House Republicans were completing a budget proposal for next year and beyond. It is likely to spur an ideological showdown over the size of government and the role of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

The plan, which is scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday, will be the most ambitious Republican effort since the November elections to put a conservative stamp on economic and domestic policy. It involves far greater stakes for Congress and for President Obama — substantively and politically — than the current fight over spending cuts.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/us/politics/03spend.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[global1]

1. Please Stop Calling Medicaid & Medicare - Entitlement Programs......nt

[iamtechus]

2. Are you suggesting that recipients of benefits from those programs aren't entitled to them?

[Geoffrey_Lebowski]

3. I think the point is it's a right-wing 'spin' terminology ...

Calling something an 'Entitlement Program' makes it sound like it's a handout based on taxpayer largesse, rather than being something that someone earned/paid into.

That nomenclature is used in an attempt to make it sound like these programs should be lumped in with Welfare and that sort of thing.

[global1]

4. Are You Suggesting They Are Getting Something For Nothing?...nt

[global1]

5. So I Guess You're For Corporate Welfare And Corporate Entitlement Programs......nt

[No Elephants]

7. More likely suggesting that the term "entitlement" is a RW dog whistle

[No Elephants]

6. +1

[iemitsu]

8. we are entitled to social security since we pay for it.

and i guess we are entitled to medicare for the same reason.
i only wish we had any hope that obama will come down on the right side of this fight.