It took a while, but finally, a Democrat holding public office came up with a fair and suitable retort to the hordes of wrinkly Republicans on their Town-Hall Freedom Ride to save America from health care reform. Senator Claire McCaskill (who says her teenage sons have prepped her well for these stunts) put the question directly to the mob before her.
She asked all those receiving Medicare to raise their hands, which about half of the audience did, and then she asked how many wanted their Medicare taken away completely. All lowered their liver-spotted claws. The senator did not really need to expound on that. It sent a shawl-tugging chill through the room.
If we are to take Republicans seriously, what she said makes perfect sense. It would be an easy thing for the Congress to simply take them at their word and chop out all entitlements and subsidies. Don't want socialized medicine? Okay...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6W2YQr63A&feature=related
In that logical sense, the government would also have to consider eliminating Social Security. That's what conservatives want, as they consider our national safety-net to be the bastard child of FDR, an internecine tendril that chokes off our liberty. Therefore, it must be done away with, along with foodstamps and whatever else will reduce wasteful government spending.
Americans could use the tax relief, quite frankly, reaped from ending these liberal social programs. The deficit would practically evaporate along with the aging population, which will allow more reasonable versions of such niceties to perhaps re-emerge in twenty or thirty years.
Of course this would expose a gigantic segment of our population to considerable risk. All those urban legends about the elderly having to eat dog food might well come true. Still, that's why private charitable institutions exist. I, for one, would have no problem dropping off a can of Alpo now and then at the donation center.
(Admittedly, the dry stuff's cheaper and more nutritious, but it's harder on their dentures. In these trying economic times, what we really need is compassion.)
If this seems unsettling, well, that's what happens when you follow bread crumbs through the forest - there's no loaf of bread waiting at the end of the trail. Ginned-up patriotism won't get you anywhere but lost if it's misdirected and professional political operatives are no different than the average telephone scam artist.
They know exactly whom to target for their exploits. It's easy for them to spot the mark. Easier still is getting the Blu-Blockers-and-Bermudas set to do their bidding. It's no more difficult than talking them into a reverse-mortgage.
Sound too good to be true? But wait, there's more. Or less.
pH 8.15.o9
2 comments:
In order for my mother to eat dog kibble, I have to take her dentures out of hock. So, every mother's day I head down to the pawn shop on Indian School and do this good deed.
Well, not really. But I *would* do that if I were a Republican.
Which one? Mo' Money? I just put a neat old Harmony 12-string (same model as the one Pete Townsend played on "Tommy") in their music section.
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