So almost half of Americans who receive government funds do not recognize, or at least will not acknowledge, that the money comes from the government. Something is seriously missing here. Not all these people can have been home-schooled as kids, or sent to charter schools so bad it hurts to think about them. By no means do all of them come from families on welfare; rather the contrary in the case of Tea Partiers, I'd think. Where do they think the money comes from, and how did they fail to learn the basic fact that the government is giving it to them? I have no answers to either question....According to new data crunched by Cornell University's Suzanne Mettler, large numbers of Americans who receive benefits from government social programs nonetheless tell pollsters they "have not used a government social program." And when I mean large, I mean large. For example, a majority of those who have received federally subsidized student loans, 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries and 40 percent of G.I. bill recipients say they have not used a government social program.
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Friday, February 11, 2011
'Guvmint Keep Yer Hands Off My Medicare!'
We've all seen the famous sign quoted in the title above. But today I learned from David Sirota via Mustang Bobby that the sentiment is all too common:
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I share your pain. That said, my Social Security Checks appear under my pillow on the 3rd of the month courtesy of the Tooth Fairy.
ReplyDeleteLMAO!
And Kay, you don't even have to leave a tooth! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou mention this to a tea-bagger, and they whine "But that's *my* money that I paid in as Social Security, that I'm getting back!" Uhm, no. The money you paid into Social Security went to pay for your Mom and Dad's retirement. That money you're getting "back" is *my* money, that I'm paying as Social Security taxes today. At this point said teabagger goes off on a tangent ranting about "Ponzi schemes" (no, it's not, it's welfare for old people, i.e., a government social program), and absolutely refuses to talk to you anymore about Social Security being a government social program.
ReplyDeleteSo anyhow, that's how they think. They think their Social Security payroll taxes went into a vault somewhere, and now the vault has been opened and they're getting what they paid back. Pointing out to them that even *traditional* pension plans don't work that way -- that even in *traditional* pension plans (rarer than hen's teeth nowadays, but that's another issue) paid most current retirees benefits using monies paid by current workers and thus were basically "welfare" for retirees being paid by current workers -- gets the famous Sgt. Schultz reaction where they loudly pretend they didn't hear you and start ranting about the evils of Big Gummint.
- Badtux the Teabagger Whisperer Penguin
BadTux, I am continually amazed that these people can wave away the fact that Social Security has worked since 1935... in other words, for 76 years... as a contract across generations, occasionally tweaked but never repealed. Now the Tea-tards would renege on that contract across generations. If they think an old cripple like me can't fight back, they haven't faced me in the street with my cane in hand! My message to them: you don't like it? well isn't that just tooooo bad... suck it up and pay me what you owe me.
ReplyDeleteI swing a pretty mean cane myself! Holler if you need me!!!!
ReplyDelete