Sunday Morning TV Modest Propsal

Republicans have spent much of the last year strolling from tv camera to tv camera screaming about cutting entitlement spending, but when pressed for specific ideas of course they have exactly zero and just flop around and huff and puff like fat dogs after walking in the heat.

But I just saw Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on Chris Matthews, and he said something interesting on the subject: "Why are we sending Warren Buffet getting retirement checks?"

Now, of course even thinking such things will provoke outrage, since Buffett's earned these checks etc etc. But then, you could also claim that someone like Buffett has not actually "retired" either; I doubt he's sitting on a small savings account watching the ball game every night, waiting for his check each month. He's made more cash since I started typing this post than I will make in a lifetime.

But it does seem like we could ask billionaires to forfeit these checks, no? Just the other week 400 billionaires promised to donate half their wealth to charities. Now, I understand that there's nothing worse than sending a single penny to the government, and that you're better off giving it to Satan himself, but something like social security checks for a billionaire would surely be a fairly pain-free measure to enact some of the government saving and tightening of belts that people are yammering on and on about, no? We could also make a deal wherein yes, if for some reason you find yourself in the unenviable position of having squandered your billions, we'll put you back on the payrolls.