Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 25, 2009

I have to admit I’m always bemused - and more than a touch angry - at the right wing hypocrites who scream about taxes while having their hand out behind their back for subsidies or other government payouts.

Then again, this comes from the right wingers whose definition of “family values” seems to be “I can do what I want behind everyone’s back, of course.”

“We don’t need government handouts”, what a joke. I’m sure many have read about the recent floods in Georgia, especially within the Atlanta area. Apparently a lot of businesses and homeowners have discovered that building structures in “100-years flood plains” (where floods seem to happen more often than once in a 100 years) or a home alongside a picturesque bubbling brook which suddenly became a raging torrent may not have been real good advance planning. Until about a week ago, many of these owners didn’t see any reason to pay for flood insurance.

So now what are the Georgia public officials – many of whom quite contemptuously and vocally scorn the “socialism” of the Obama administration, to the cheers of their constituents – now doing? As predictable as the sunrise, they are calling on Federal assistance. And I really want to hear those affected by the floods who receive this financial assistance tell me again how they are paying too much in taxes.

Well, you have to admit that a life expectancy of around 35 would force congress to concentrate on the issues.

I really can’t understand why a farmer would not grow as much as possible. Doesn’t the world need food and agricultural products? Wouldn’t the cost of living go down if prices went down?

The point is that this is G. Trudeau’s spin of what the protesters are saying. It’s not what they are really saying but by putting it out here like it is it will condition people into thinking they know what the protesters are saying. Like a 3rd rate comedian who got more tv time than Ms. Palin and since she did many people never listened to what Ms. Palin had to say.

Potrzebie, I think you realize this, but you have perversly answered your own question. You see if the cost of living did go down, so would the entire capitalisitic philosophy. Just as Baslim is alluding in his prior post.

I think that Garry’s implication that raging senility is driving seniors to be worried about their healthcare is rather senile of him, but at least he has that excuse. Many of the other commenters should know better.

As to handouts, I don’t think anyone questions socialistic programs that enable us to help each other in times of crisis. They work to the common good, and it’s a weak red-herring argument to equate them with other less worthy programs. What many folks do question are those people who enable others to form multi-generational lifestyles out of receiving handouts. The only “common good” that accomplishes is enslaving citizens to vote for liberals to keep their addicted goodies coming.

Remember that, while it does make a statement, it is still a comic strip and the opinion of the artist. Yet, I happen to agree. I’ve heard of no seniors in the real world willing to give up Medicare.

There is much hypocrisy in the “my country right or wrong” extreme right. It’s not THEIR country anymore? Oh boo hoo. This is the 21st century, not the 19th. Get rid of your “stars and bars” and over it. Succession? Right; pay for all the services the federal government is currently providing.

And Ms “dumb as a box of rocks” Palin? Oh, please. A Journalism Major who couldn’t even name ONE single publication. Her excuse was that she was nervous? Yeah, life is like that, especially in the public eye….

fbjsr, you want to help the uninsured but not forced on you. You want freedom of choice. Hmmm…have you ever looked up the word OPTION in the dictionary? That’s what we bleeding heart tree huggers are asking for, a Public OPTION. As in CHOICE. Why don’t conservatives understand that?

the point I was making wasn’t if Ms. Palin was qualified it was an example of how most people haven’t a clue about the issue or the person because the impression they have isn’t based on fact just what someone else says that is represented. Which really says something about how clueless they are.

I doubt Trudeau is trying to “trick” anyone into believing that this is what the protesters are saying, as the protests have been fairly well-covered ( I rarely watch cable news shows and I see lots of stories about them ); and of course none of them are demanding a repeal of Medicare or Social Security. What he’s doing is highlighting a basic inconsistency in the argument against a public option or government subsidies of health care, and doing it in a pretty amusing way. If some of the marchers and protesters shouted “No ADDITIONAL government supported health care!” I think it would be more difficult to lampoon. Instead, the death panel and communism and Obama-as-Hitler signs make the opposition seem pretty uninformed and knee-jerk reactionary.

I would have no problem taking “government” handouts.

I would like to get some of that money back that I handed in.

Beaniebones, apparently you don’t understand what the “public option” part of the healthcare insurance bill is. It’s not whether you have the choice to get or reject healthcare insurance, it’s that the government will provide one of the choices that it forces you to make. Public option will simply be chosing the government as your health insurance provider as opposed to say Blue Cross, or Kaiser Permanente, or such. The bill itself includes provisions to “fine” people who do not purchase health insurance. Does that equate to the “option to choose” in your world? If so, you don’t understand the argument being put forth.

Angry, frightened seniors ? That’s the generation that wanted to send my generation to fight in Viet Nam. And when some of us refused, they called us unpatriotic, cowardly traitors! That’s because they were ignorant then and , apparently, they are still ignorant.

fbjsr, I am in my 60’s, and the Viet Nam War was very prominent in my college years. I lost a lot of my friends there. I didn’t go. And there are still PLENTY of seniors alive that are too young to have fought in WW2 but were old enough to call us cowards and traitors for not going off to die. Most of them are now dottering.

fbjsr, You missed something in your statement “It made much more since to pay the farmers to grow the food and then send it to the parts of the world that needed it and give it to them. This would not affect local prices.”… It actually would not have made more sense to do things that way.

Consider that had farmers here grown the food and given it away, not only would worldwide prices for this food have dropped, netting other farmers even less profit (local prices) and less ability to stay in business, but this would have destroyed whatever local markets existed in those countries where the american products were sent.

Unintended consequences - bite us on the A$$ every time we think we’ve got it all covered…

The naive know not their mistakes. -And repeat them. The foolish blame others for their mistakes. -And repeat them. The intelligent profit from their mistakes. The wise profit from the mistakes of others. –Rick Berry, /Stepping Off The Mat/

I have no problem taking government handouts. After all, it was the GI Bill that put me through college. I have no problem with preferential admissions practices, either; the dean told me up front I was getting in because I was a veteran.

I guess it all depends on who’s doing the giving, and who’s doing the taking.

Trudeau points out the irony of republicans who appose health care. Cut subsidies to corporations and multimillionare farmers. Leave the small farms alone. Why ADM and Dixie Sugar ect get subsidies is beyond me.

bmwk12ltc said

the point I was making wasn’t if Ms. Palin was qualified it was an example of how most people haven’t a clue about the issue or the person because the impression they have isn’t based on fact

Actually, i never saw any of those Palin parodies you allude to, because i don’t watch much TV.

I promise you, Clueless Sarah was quite successful on her own in making herself look ridiculous and emphasising her total unsuitability for the office she was running for.

Fairport, and Joe Biden showed his suitability how?