You sound like “discretionary spending” is money that’s “given away” to the poor. The truth is, the department of defense, homeland security and the war on terror make up half of discretionary spending. But why use it for your example? Is it because the middle class can get a feel for it? If you had used the total budget, the figure we owe in order to feed at the trough would be over $15,000. How can a person barely eking out a life for themselves begin to take responsibility for that? And why! Since most of the taxpaying poor are not using government assistance.

You know, this started out with a discussion on covering everyone under state run healthcare. It’s turned into an issue of “the rich vs. the poor” but that’s ok because in essence, that’s what it is. In an ideal world the fight would look more like “the rich, the poor, and the middle class vs. the federal government.” Intuitively I still think it’s possible, with the right people in government, a state sponsored plan could save everyone a lot of money- even without going after the rich.