Super way to end a story on Tea Partiers who are a study in cognitive dissonance:
"Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.
"Others could not explain the contradiction.
"'That's a conundrum, isn't it?' asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. 'I don't know what to say. Maybe I don't want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.' She added, 'I didn't look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I've changed my mind.'"
The teabaggers say they don't want to get rid of Social Security or Medicare, which together made up about 41% of federal spending in FY 2009. Nor do they want to cut national defense, about 20%. They'd love to cut spending on education, environmental protection, and foreign aid, but those total only about 5%. About 5% is interest on national debt. --> We're already at 70% of federal spending. Well, there is always "welfare," including unemployment benefits, food stamps, and aid to dependent children, which totals about 15%. We can always get rid of that, right? Please tell us, you know-it-all teabaggers, how much should we cut and where?
I'm sorry, I simply don't believe that these people are so angry about fiscal policy -- especially when these same old "fiscal conservatives" sat idly by in 2004 when Dubya signed into law the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the largest entitlement expansion since Medicare was created. I don't believe that what motivates them to rally and carry signs is a desire to shave a percent here and cut a percent there, while not touching the two core entitlement programs which pose a solvency threat unless we act in the coming years. I think what gets these folks so riled up is exactly what one honest teabagging retiree admitted:
"'He's a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he's a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don't care what he says.'"
That is, they just don't feel that Obama is one of them. Hmmm... I know there's a word for such a feeling, but I can't recall what it is....
By Kate Zernike and Megan Thee-Brenan
April 14, 2010 | New York Times
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