Republican ideology has consequences

As you all know, I am convinced that since Reagan, conservatives have essentially run and governed on a con--the con being that they can cut taxes and increase or maintaing revenue--and that government is an evil entity that should be dramatically reduced. I am further convinced that when most conservatives talk about the evils of government spending, they are thinking of handouts to poor or non-working people, and have no real sense of the ways that they, themselves, benefit from federal money. In fact, I would love to see an interactive website that took a typical city street and demonstrated, visually, how much federal, state, local and private money went into each business or home. I am not sure how to get at that information, but that needs to be done.

But in other, related news, I have been hammering conservatives for the hypocrisy of calling stimulus money socialism and then using it to pay their debts. Turns out, it is even worse than that. As we learned today, not only has Rick Perry used stimulus money to fill his state deficit, but he also socked much of it away into the state's rainy day fund. So money intended to stimulate the economy is locked away for Texas's future subsidies for rich people, undoubtedly, instead of getting the economy going. Worse, child poverty is through the roof in Texas, but to save money, Perry wants to cut some $10 billion from funds aimed to help poor kids.

Got that? He didn't need the stimulus, called it socialism and threatened to secede, all while using the money. And now, he is planning on further cuts in aid to the poorest kids. Can't, of course, raise taxes, because conservatives no longer do that.

This shit has real life consequences. Government can over-reach and certainly can be wasteful. But it also helps us pool our resources to help the disabled and the very poor and the children. It helps us help those devastated by natural disasters. It helps us provide a college education at an affordable level.

But not for Tea Party idiots. Nope. Government is evil except for that which helps them. Can't pay for that either, of course, but certainly can't extend it to those in need. And while I am on that, this great reminder that the Tea Party is not a "revolution," but spoiled people bitching about non-issues. Egypt is a revolution, and as he notes, no silly costumes, tea bags, and not a picture of Hitler anywhere.