{"id":1159,"date":"2015-01-13T21:45:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T21:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2015-01-15T20:29:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T20:29:32","slug":"if-i-were-wealthier-than-croseus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"If I were wealthier than Croseus . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If I were wealthier than Lydian King Croseus, the US government or at least the people&#8217;s representatives would have been falling over themselves to help me out.  But I&#8217;m not.  Workplace rules are feel good rules that can&#8217;t be applied in the real world and my last business wasn&#8217;t too big to fail.  It was o-kay for unregulated banks to crash the entire world economy, and it <em>was<\/em> necessary for the US taxpayer to bail out companies that had been allowed to grow to be to big to be <\/p>\n<ul><em>allowed<\/em><\/ul>\n<p> to fail.  And in a true free market economy that&#8217;s wrong too.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1158\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/s4.reutersmedia.net_.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1158\" src=\"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/s4.reutersmedia.net_-150x109.jpeg\" alt=\"U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell smiles after he ceremonially swore-in, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington January 6, 2015. Credit: Reuters\/Larry Downing\" width=\"150\" height=\"109\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1158\" srcset=\"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/s4.reutersmedia.net_-150x109.jpeg 150w, http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/s4.reutersmedia.net_-300x218.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/s4.reutersmedia.net_.jpeg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1158\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><br \/>U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell smiles after he ceremonially swore-in, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington January 6, 2015.<br \/>Credit: Reuters\/Larry Downing<br \/><\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/01\/12\/us-usa-congress-socialsecurity-idUSKBN0KL2FC20150112\">(Reuters)<\/a> House of Representatives rule change that could prompt a steep cut to Social Security disability benefits next year, congressional aides said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The new legislative rule, pushed through with little notice last week, would prohibit a routine transfer to the Social Security Disability Trust Fund, which is expected to be depleted by late 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans say they passed the rule change to force reforms to the disability program, which they claim is rife with fraud and mismanagement. <\/p>\n<p>Republican Representative Sam Johnson, of Texas, who authored the rule change, said it was meant to protect Social Security retirement benefits from being &#8220;raided&#8221; by the &#8220;fraud-plagued disability program&#8221; and to encourage reforms.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by John Whitesides and Leslie Adler) <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>After removing the  <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Legislation\">Glass-Steagall Act<\/a> and now removing any teeth that the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dodd%E2%80%93Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act\">Dodd-Frank<\/a> legislation might have had, it&#8217;s time to attack the poorest among us once again.<\/p>\n<p>The Waste and Fraud argument reached it&#8217;s peak of foolishness under Our Lord and Saviour, Ronald Reagan with the Cadillac driving, Fur wearing welfare queen.   <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/codeswitch\/2013\/12\/20\/255819681\/the-truth-behind-the-lies-of-the-original-welfare-queen\">Linda Taylor, Reagan&#8217;s Welfare Queen,<\/a> was anything but.  In reality Miss Taylor was a sophisticated con artist under investigation by the police, the police who repeatedly asked the government to leave her alone so the police could gather evidence and obtain a conviction.<\/p>\n<p>But we&#8217;re still at it.  Trust me folks, if there&#8217;s waste and fraud it ain&#8217;t much.  I use the system.  I believe that I earned the right by working so hard I can&#8217;t work anymore.  Believe you me, it ain&#8217;t Champagne and Caviar. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I were wealthier than Lydian King Croseus, the US government or at least the people&#8217;s representatives would have been falling over themselves to help me out. But I&#8217;m not. Workplace rules are feel good rules that can&#8217;t be applied &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/?p=1159\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thinkingoutloud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1170,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/1170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arts-attic.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}