But what really confuses me is the rhetoric of the far right about government. If you read through this speech (or the reporter's take on his speech) is the constant refrain of government undermining American freedom and "self-reliance."
“And if we don’t have a house, they’ll give us a house. If we don’t have education, they’ll give us free education. If we’re hungry, we get food stamps.Who was given a free house? Who has been given a free education? Isn't there a key difference between a handout and giving people an opportunity? I don't deny that food stamps are handouts, but most of what government does is not that. A good example is Social Security, where if you work hard, you get more back.
But even as I was wrestling with this post, I saw this in my twitter feed, and this eye popping image:
And Ron Paul wants more of this, not less.
3 comments:
My tax money (and in Michigan, if I choose to buy Lotto tickets, that money too) goes to schools. Thus, I pay, locally even, for my kids' school. And for the people whose tax money doesn't go to my local schools, well, I am OK with their kids still going to my school too. What in the name of holy fuck is so bad to conservatives about that?? That way, everyone egst the same education, and we can all...ummm..COMPETE ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR JOBS!
But they only want competition when it fucking suits them.
I gotta bring this up, because it illustrates where I think conservatives are coming from. In MI, we are fighting (like many states) over the Earned Income Tax Credit; the tax credit for low-income workers. Who are working.
MI Repubs want to kill it. It's "free money" for poor people; a handout.
Even though...shhh...these families have to earn a paycheck, meaning they have to WORK, to get it. But shhh..
The idiot ass-faced Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative "think"-tank in MI, said the following yesterday about the EITC:
"Actually, it's a transfer payment is what it is," says Michael LaFaive with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based think tank. "In order for them to spend this money, it first has to be taken from other people and business. So these transfer payments just effectively rob very productive people and shift it to lower-income individuals."
That last statement says it all: Low-income people are unproductive, according to conservatives.
Even though, IN ORDER TO STAY OFF OF WELFARE, these unproductive families are working 2 or 3 jobs in the businesses of the "very productive people", MAKING AND SELLING THEIR SHIT.
Fuck you assholes. Seriously.
There is Section 8 housing, but it only provides a rental and doesn't actually give you a house. I suppose if you didn't pay property taxes, your children's education would be free, but I don't see how you can make the argument that if you can't pay, you shouldn't get an education.
The problem with hard core libertarians and Ayn Rand fanatics is that there notion of what society should be like exists only in their minds. They often present it as if that was what it was like in the "good ol' days," but in reality, they would probably be just as unhappy as they are now.
Yeah, food stamps are a handout, but you have to be genuinely in need to get them. In addition, it doesn't amount to a whole lot of money and you can only purchase certain things. This doesn't stop critics from claiming that they saw someone at their local grocery store buying filet mignon and lobster with their food stamps. I suppose you could, but you would run out of money very fast.
The other critique I hear is about how poor people are all on medicaid. The only way to get medicaid is to be a child, pregnant, or on SSI. In the case of SSI, you have to be disabled if you are under 63. The vast majority of the adult uninsured do not get medicaid. This just shows how ignorant most people are about entitlement programs.
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