Peter Morley Dec 1, 2022

REPEAT AFTER ME:

Social Security and Medicare are NOT "Entitlements"! We PAID for them.

Social Security and Medicare are NOT "Entitlements"! We PAID for them.

Social Security and Medicare are NOT "Entitlements"! We PAID for them.

WE HAVE ALL THE RECEIPTS TOO!

Show threadmarymessallDec 1, 2022
@morethanmySLE We are entitled to them because we paid for them. That's why they are entitlements. That's what entitlement actually means. Like if you've paid off your car, you get the title. You are entitled to use what you've paid for.
Show thread@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNoteDec 1, 2022
@marymessall @morethanmySLE True but the farR uses the word entitlements colloquially to mean gifts NOT earned. The belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or *special treatment. Both your definition & theirs are actual dictionary definitions but the most commonly used and the one used to by the RW is the pejorative one.
Show threadmarymessall
@Pineywoozle @morethanmySLE Okay but Soc Sec and Medicare are literally categorized as "entitlement programs." And what that means is that Congress cannot cut their funding. That money is not "discretionary" -- it cannot be spent or cut at Congress's discretion -- beneficiaries are entitled to those funds by virtue of having already paid into the system. And in the phrase "entitlement program" the word "entitlement" is used according to the definition I mentioned.
Dec 2, 2022 at 1:30amWeb
Show thread@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNoteDec 2, 2022
@marymessall @morethanmySLE I know but that’s not what he’s addressing. He’s addressing the way republicans are using the word as propaganda in their run up to gutting it.
Show threadmarymessallDec 2, 2022
@Pineywoozle @morethanmySLE If we give in and use the right wing definition of "entitlement" then they will point at all of the official documents classifying social security & Medicare as entitlement programs and say that PROVES these are unearned benefits for lazy people. When actually they have just proved they don't understand the use of that word in context. It means the money in those programs is our money, not Congress's. We ARE entitled to those funds.
Show thread@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNoteDec 2, 2022
@marymessall @morethanmySLE The argument is sound but they have spent years cementing the use of the word in their crack pot constituents ears. It’s not a battle of words you’ll win. We win this battle by keeping them out of control.
Show threadmarymessallDec 2, 2022
@Pineywoozle @morethanmySLE Agreed. I'm just saying it's not great to go around insisting that they're not entitlements. They literally, officially, are entitlements. Saying they aren't is false. It's just that the word doesn't mean what some people think it means.