| (NOTE to REPUBLICANS: See the headline? That's 96%, almost 100%, which would be EVERYONE. - Z)
Millionaire and Billionaire Conservatives who are siding with Mitt Romney in the presidential race like to pretend they've never had to take -- and don't want! -- any benefits of the government we all pay for. We constantly hear this B.S. from Coloradans, "I never took nothin' from nobody! I lifted myself up by my Tony Lama Snakeskin Boot bootstraps without any help! Get your hands off my Medicare! Blah, blah, blah!"
Looking closer we find it's just another myth they use to justify their greed and noxious hatred of that Black Man in the White House:
Mr. Romney's remarks may resonate with those who think of themselves as "producers" rather than "moochers" - to use Ayn Rand's distinction. But this distinction fails to capture the way Americans really experience government.
Instead of dividing us, our experiences as both makers and takers ought to bind us in a community of shared sacrifice and mutual support.
No matter what HeckuvaJob Brownie says it seems true we should all be proud to pay taxes into a system that supports all our citizens and that helps make America Exceptional:
The use of government social policies cuts across partisan divides. Some policies were used more often by members of one party or the other.
Republicans were more likely to have used the G.I. Bill and Social Security retirement and survivors' benefits, while more Democrats had taken advantage of Medicaid and unemployment insurance.
Overall, 82 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans acknowledged receipt of at least one direct social benefit. More Republicans (92 percent) than Democrats (86 percent) had taken advantage of submerged policies.
Once we take both types of policies into account, the seeming distinction between makers and takers vanishes: 97 percent of Republicans and 98 percent of Democrats report that they have used at least one government social policy.
The majority of individuals from households at every income level have used at least one direct social policy. Low-income people have used more of the direct policies than have the affluent. ... But the proportions were reversed in the case of the submerged policies.
Wealthy families had typically used three of them, and the poor just one.
We are all in this together after all. The sooner the rich, who pretend we aren't, admit it, the sooner we can get on with the true business of America.
(h/t Digby.) |
