In response to:
For you people who think paying into SS and Medicare grants some sort of privilege:
1) SS and Med taxes are income taxes. We know this because they are calculated directly from income (but you can't calculate the "real" income tax if all you know is income). That those two taxes have their own names is irrelevant.
2) SS and Med are entitlements. We know this because there is no connection between what you pay in and what you get out. You can pay a lot of money in and get nothing back, or pay nothing in and get a lot out.
3) Both SS and Med are Congressionally approved Ponzi schemes. We know this because both programs are projected to run out of money in the not-too-distant future, and Congress has no plan to avert disaster.
On the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk harbor, a coatless Mitt Romney named a tieless Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee.
Romney's choice was not much of a surprise after he told NBC's Chuck Todd on Thursday that he wanted someone with a "vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country. I mean, I happen to believe this is a defining election for America, that we're going to be voting for what kind of America we're going to have."
This arguably describes some of the others mentioned as possible nominees, but it...
"SS and Med are entitlements. We know this because there is no connection between what you pay in and what you get out."
By that definition, home, auto, health, and all other insurance we purchase is an "entitlement".
"Both SS and Med are Congressionally approved Ponzi schemes."
Lots of businesses, government programs, and non-profit groups run out of money. That does not make them a Ponzi scheme. It usually means they were the victims either of bad luck or poor management (or both), not criminal conduct, which is what a Ponzi scheme is.
You know exactly what you're getting when you buy insurance, and you are not compelled to buy insurance through mandatory payroll deduction (except, it seems, for Obamacare).
Programs that run out of money because they shell out far more money than is actuarially (i.e. predictably) possible are, by definition, Ponzi schemes.