Friday, December 18, 2009

A Quote That Sums Up Right-Wing Health Care Idiocy

"Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"

-- Speaker at a South Carolina town-hall meeting, July 2009.

Source: The Yale Book of Quotations, 2009 edition -- MJ

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This mindset is not unlike my right-wing neighbor. He is a big fan of Rush and Fox News. He has this extreme far-right viewpoint that basically says that all government programs outside of the Pentagon should be closed. He has said that everything from the FAA to the FDA shut be closed or privatized.

Oh, and his own job? He works for the federal government. He enjoys a nice, cushy job with strong job security, loads of holidays and vacation time and other benefits, as well as a $90,000 salary. (And the job, by his own admission, is very easy).

I've tried to point out to him that it's hypocritical for him to work for the government while blasting it and praising the private sector. I've also tried to point out that cushy, secure jobs like what he has simply don't exist in the private sector these days. But he won't be deterred. Indeed, he has told me repeatedly that he thinks I'm "lucky" to be working in the private sector (which he thinks is an infinitely better place to work). I've asked him repeatedly why he simply doesn't quit his life-long government job and go to work in the private sector. But he always changes the subject.

And then there's the guy I know who is a hard-core self-proclaimed Libertarian, who believes all taxes and all government should be abolished.

Oh, and by the way, he hasn't held a job in 20 years: he collect his paychecks from a highly suspect disability claim from Social Security.

Manifesto Joe said...

If not for the people who would obviously be hurt, I would like to see such people have their wishes granted. Then, they might actually have to work for a living -- if they could find a job.

Jack Jodell said...

Manifesto Joe,
Very well and very succinctly put! The amount of ignorance on issues most on the far-right display is absolutely unbelievable. And Anon's far-right neighbor fits the mold of those tea-bagger types perfectly: they can't (asnd don't want) to see beyond the end of their own noses anyway, they are very self-centered, and they believe what they want to believe and ignore facts altogether. There's no arguing with morons like that: they JUST DON'T GET IT. You got a taste of their rigidity and stupidity in your back and forth with that redneck Sepp guy over at Random Thoughts. You did a great job ripping him a new a-hole, by the way, but I think it was all in vain. Those types don't want truth or fact. They just want their own twisted notions reinforced 100%, and those who don't do so are automatically un-American America-haters. People like him are impossible, so I don't even waste my time with them anymore.

Manifesto Joe said...

Oh, I remember enough communication theory from college to know that I wasn't going to change that guy's mind in the least. But in a public forum, however small, it's important to kick someone's ass like that now and then, just enough to make sure EVERYBODY ELSE knows he's a fool. I left him to have the "last word" if he wanted it. I haven't even been back to that thread to see if he went for it.

Jack Jodell said...

No biggie. People like him are a waste of time and energy.

Marc McDonald said...

Here's an interesting observation by Paul Krugman (it was news to me):

"Beyond that, we need to take on the way the Senate works. The filibuster, and the need for 60 votes to end debate, aren’t in the Constitution. They’re a Senate tradition, and that same tradition said that the threat of filibusters should be used sparingly. Well, Republicans have already trashed the second part of the tradition: look at a list of cloture motions over time, and you’ll see that since the G.O.P. lost control of Congress it has pursued obstructionism on a literally unprecedented scale. So it’s time to revise the rules."