Originally Posted by
clocker
There is a mindset, it's just chaotic.
The base of the Republican right reflexively contracts from "government interference" (except you know, from things like Social Security and Medicare...proposed changes to these socialist programs exempt the right wing base from the effects)
I would love to see Social Security and Medicare be completely eliminated. I'm never going to benefit from them. And they are unsutainable whether or not I or anyone wants to keep them around. Eventually we will owe so much money from the federal deficit that we won't even be able to pay the interest on it anymore, and it will all collapse anyways. I say cut it now, while we can still crawl our way out of this ditch. Before it is too late.
but sees no reason not to use the government as the bully pulpit for their pet moral crusades.
But you see, there is a difference here. The conservative point of view is this... let people have the freedom to eat what they want and to exercise or not exercise and to get as fat as they want to get, but then don't ask the taxpayers to pay for their health care.
Get fat, if you want, but don't expect me to pay for it. Pay for it yourself.
Medicaid (also known as A.H.C.C.C.S. in Arizona) is paid for by taxpayers, and is given to these fat people for free, eventhough their obesity causes most of their health problems -- diabetes, heart disease, liver failure, kidney failure, cancer, etc.
The problem with government programs like this is that there is no incentive for these people to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight at all. They aren't going to pay anything for it, so why should they care? This is unsustainable.
But if they knew they had to pay for their own healthcare, perhaps they would be more careful about what they ate and how much they ate, and maybe they would even consider the possibility of a little exercise. But I guess that is evil of me to suggest such a thing. The government can solve all of our problems.
The liberal/socialist mindset seems so wonderful, but it is simply unsustainable. There is no way to balance the budget and pay off the national debt without reducing or hopefully eliminating all entitlement programs.
The founding fathers never contemplated anything like what our Federal government has become.
We need to go back to the way it was before World War II at the very least, in terms of government spending.
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that Michelle Obama
She's getting a bit on the chubby side by my standards. Maybe she shouldn't be eating so much ice cream?
was being roundly mocked for her opinions on childhood obesity?
It makes perfect sense- in Republican BizzaroWorld- to freak out about the goddamn gubmint gettin all up my spawn's school lunch and then turn around in twenty years and punish them for turning into little zeppelins as a result of their poor nutrition.
While we're at it, let's cut all access to sex education and birth control and simultaneously restrict access to abortion and pre/post natal care...because that is totally logical.
In accordance with the right wing's love of children (which begins at conception and ends at delivery), all school funding should be cut as well. Because an undereducated workforce will lure companies back to home soil and increase our competitive position with India and China. Yeah, that's totally how it works.
I don't know, it's kinda weird.
Viewed objectively, the right wing plans seem to result in a doughy, stupid- yet fertile!-population.
Which doesn't seem too useful for anything but extruding more conservatives.
