mine, mine, mine (Conservatism is a fraud) [View all]

[kpete]

This interesting article from the NY Times backs up what many on the left have said for some time. The right is jam-packed with hypocrites when it comes to the social safety net. They aren’t, in fact, rugged individualists out of some Ayn Rand novel, but in fact just like everyone else — benefitting from the safety net they demonize as socialism:

Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It

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Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government.

He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman.

Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1329062548-%20tHqYD695U16BxIMYX6niA&pagewanted=all#

via:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2012/02/12/the-tea-party-loves-socialism-fakes-otherwise/