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Originally Posted by TheMercenary
The intentions of Democrats are only the best. They want all of the old to have lavish retirements, all of the young to have scholarships, verse-penning cowboys to have festivals funded by government, and everyone to have access to all the best health care, at no cost to himself. In the face of a huge wave of debt swamping all western nations, this is the core of their argument: They want a fair society, and their critics do not; they want to help, and their opponents like to see people suffer; they want a world filled with love and caring, and their opponents want one of callous indifference, in which the helpless must fend for themselves. (“We must reject both extremes, those who say we shouldn’t help the old and the sick and those who say that we should,” quips the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg.) But in fact, everyone thinks that we “should” do this; the problem, in the face of the debt crisis, is finding a way that we can. It is about the “can” part that the left is now in denial: daintily picking its way through canaries six deep on the floor of the coal mine, and conflating a “good” with a “right.” http://www.weeklystandard.com/articl...te_576909.html |
Canaries, my ass. Those are the bodies of your fellow Americans. Soaring unemployment? Food? Medical care? And the Republican response is to stop assistance to Americans impacted by the worst economic crisis since the Depression? And your commentator would have us believe that it's all about "can"?
No. It's all about greed. God forbid that those in the highest percentiles of income go back to paying the same amount of taxes that they were before W. came along. I noticed all those rich people on street corners with signs that read, "Will actually do some work (as long as my hands don't get dirty) to pay my taxes." Yeah, right.
Oh, and God forbid that anything resembling a "transfer of wealth" occur in the good old USA. Well, I take that back. It's OK to transfer wealth to continuous wars, defense contractors like Halliburton, and the Generals at the Pentagon. No one mentions that almost half the US budget goes to the military (and thus half of everyone's taxes). Dick Chaney can bloat himself with the tax payer's dollar, but a family hit with unemployment better not get a few food stamps.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One in six Americans is receiving help from the government, just as fiscal austerity threatens to reduce some of that aid.
Soaring unemployment during The Great Recession has driven tens of millions of people to the dole. Enrollment in Medicaid and food stamp programs are at record highs, while unemployment insurance rolls remain at elevated levels. Many people depend on more than one program.
But as President Obama and lawmakers fiercely debate budget cuts to reduce the country's $14 trillion-plus debt, some of those lifelines could be at risk. House Republicans are looking to revamp and slash funding for many programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.
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