Winding Paths

Net Result
The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year. (NYT, 2/11/2011)


This is one of an ongoing series of articles written by the Liberal media over the past several months, obviously at the direction of the DNC. The overall objective is to counter Republican arguments that the poor are not a stagnant pool and that there is upward mobility in this country for those willing to work for it.


Here the Left argues that it is actually the middle class who receive the biggest slice of government goodies! Further, the insinuation is that many of those who get the benefits are conservatives who are hypocrites in taking government largess. Of course it is inevitable that as Liberals have extended the range and scope of entitlement spending, more people would get benefits.  Apparently good conservatives should refuse Social Security and Medicare benefits. The end game to all this is so obvious that even Liberals should see it - the more people that get the goodies, the fewer people there are to pay for it. 


The other objective to these articles, of course, is to make the case that taxes need to be raised. The solution to the growing cost of entitlement programs is NEVER that government spending should be cut.  Where to cut? For starters, end the sinkhole of green energy subsidies.


Confirmed 
Insurance companies won't be making donations. Drug makers will still charge for the pill. Doctors will still bill for reproductive treatment. The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums. The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, and insurers may amortize the cost differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium. (WSJ, 2/11/2012)


The WSJ echoes RedStateVT's ongoing discussion: Who really pays for "free stuff?"


Breathe
Standing for limited government, low taxes and a balanced budget is not a “racist” agenda. It is an American agenda, supported by persons of every hue and ethnicity. It is sheer blockheaded nonsense for pundits to keep assailing nonwhites who support the Tea Party and the GOP as racial tokens or mere tools of the white power structure.

Let’s all take a deep breath and acknowledge: We as a nation have turned the corner on “race,” something evidenced by a rising chorus of minorities of every political stripe who criticize the first African-American President, and who will pick their choice for the Oval Office without regard to the skin color of the candidates. (Michael Meyers, NYDailyNews.com, 2/8/2012)


A voice of reason on race.....from no less than the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. 


Legalize It!
Tony Bennett, the evening's first performer, recounted other recent big-name deaths in the music industry. "First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston. Let's legalize drugs, like Amsterdam, it's a very sane city now." (Huffington Post, 2/12/2012)


The Left's solution to social problems in America!