Friday, November 25, 2011

Greenwald writes ...

Glenn Greenwald writes to me:


You are responding to a cheap shot. But you responded with a cheap shot yourself. I have been told often that we should not respond in kind here; and I think your response was a little thin-skinned. (as you have said of me on occasion)
No - one way to illustrate a cheap shot is to take someone's shoddy reasoning and apply it to them.
Dr. Paul has said that each state should let the people vote on the issue. Have you given up on democracy?
As you undoubtedly know, constitutional rights are not supposed to be subject to referendum. Leaving aside the debate about whether privacy rights protects abortion, the fact - the indisputable fact - is that returning this question to states would mean that for at least some women, abortion would become illegal again.
Again, I'm not arguing that this outweighs the questions of war and other civil liberties (and I'm not arguing it doesn't), but I absolutely understand people for whom that is a deal-breaker - just as I understand people for whom, say, due-process-free assassination is an Obama deal-breaker even if they agree with him than GOP candidates on domestic issues.
Dr. Paul has said we should continue to pay for those already on the welfare programs like SS. He has never said we toss old people into the street.
There are a lot of old people not yet on SS who will be eligible soon, and taking it away from them after they paid into it their whole lives and expected it will leave them with nothing in their retirement years. Again, I do not think it's unreasonable for progressives who believe in SS to consider that a serious issue when deciding for whom they will vote.

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Let us respond:

Point 1) Constitutional rights are those spelled out in the constitution; but there does not seem to be a right for a woman to kill her child in the womb. One can read it over and over and there just is not such a right. Much like the constitution once saw a black man as the equal to a mule; someday the public will realize this is question for the people to decide.

College Life Cycle Chart


As all college life cycle charts from the biology department will show that human life begins with a fertilized egg; you are saying that the female, under our constitution, is authorized to commit murder. I think not.

Let the people vote on the matter.

As a practical matter; it seems unlikely that abortion will be illegal in any state if the people get to decide, but even if that is so the woman can go to a state where it is legal to have the murder committed.




Point 2) As one of those "old people" getting close to Social Security age, I have listened to Ron Paul's message on how to unwind Social Security and there was never any mention of just letting those already on benefits keep those benefits. That is something that you know also and you surprise me to use such a debate tactic. Beneath you.

Ron Paul:


Q: Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?
PAUL: Well, I agree that Social Security is broke. We spent all the money and it's on its last legs unless we do something. One bill that I had in Congress --never got passed--was to prevent the Congress from spending any of that money on the wars and all the nonsense that we do around the world. Now the other thing that I would like to see done is a transition. I think it's terrible that the Social Security system has the problems it has, but if people wouldn't have spent the money we would be OK. Now, what I would like to do is to allow all the young people to get out of Social Security and go on their own. Now, the big question is, is how would the funding occur?








Source: 2011 GOP Tea Party debate in Tampa FL , Sep 12, 2011

Abolish Social Security, but not overnight

Q: Are you still in favor of abolishing Social Security?A: Yes, but not overnight. As a matter of fact, my program’s the only one that is going to be able to take care of the elderly. I’d like to get the young people out of it, just the younger generation, because there’s no money there, and they’re going to have to pay 50 years and they’re not going to get anything. I’d take care of all the elderly, all those who are dependent, but I would save the money from this wild spending overseas.








Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida , Jan 24, 2008 
 

Let people get out of Social Security; it’s a failure

Right now they’re getting behind because they’re having a 10% to 12% inflation rate and we give them a 2% increase, and they’re really hurting. I don’t want taxes on the Social Security benefits that they receive. I have a bill in that would secure the trust fund, where none of that money could be spent in the general revenues. So in many ways, the goal would be to get us out of this program that is a failure. It doesn’t work, and is going to bankrupt this country. The only way you can do that is save enough money, tide the people over, let the young people get out, because they’re going to be paying all these years and they’re not going to get anything. I probably have the only program that would really help the elderly because the money’s not going to be there. There’s no way these cost-of-living increases are ever going to keep up with their benefits are never going to keep up with their cost of living. They’re decreasing. My program has a better chance of helping them than any other one.
Source: 2008 GOP debate in Boca Raton Florida , Jan 24, 2008
 

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