Via Pew Research.

“As policymakers at the state and national level struggle with rising entitlement costs, overwhelming numbers of Americans agree that, over the years, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been good for the country.

But these cherished programs receive negative marks for current performance, and their finances are widely viewed as troubled. Reflecting these concerns, most Americans say all three programs either need to be completely rebuilt or undergo major changes. However, smaller majorities express this view than did so five years ago.

The public’s desire for fundamental change does not mean it supports reductions in the benefits provided by Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Relatively few are willing to see benefit cuts as part of the solution, regardless of whether the problem being addressed is the federal budget deficit, state budget shortfalls or the financial viability of the entitlement programs.”

Whether the public wants to see so-called entitlements reduced or flat out eliminated isn’t the point. The point is that this country should have never put them in place to start with. America is going to have to get some tough love if we’re ever going to get out of the fiscal mess Obama has put us in. Social Security, Medicare are failed socialism experiments. They’ve never been solvent, and do little to truly help and in fact – in the case of medicare, medicaid have driven the cost of medical care through the roof.

All these federal handout programs have run in the red since their inception and there is little to no hope that someone can be reworked to make them otherwise. The fact is that there is no such thing as “entitlements”, at least there shouldn’t be. One could say that we paid into the system we should get something back. But the fact is that the majority of beneficiaries get back much more than they ever put in. In fact dollar for dollar the return is greater than any investment on earth, yet the payor is going broke trying to make good on the deal.

Retirement isn’t a government responsibility, it’s a personal responsibility. Democrats of course would have us eating out of Uncle Sam’s hand forever and a day. However it’s simply not feasible anymore. It’s time to cut America loose else we lose America.