So my Republican Dad says, "Half the country is on some government entitlement program...."

[JHB]

63. That's one of the dodges and reasons for the dissonance...

Even before FOX, outfits like the Heritage Foundation and other RW "think" tanks would generate reports to then be quoted by conservative politicians and AM talk radio (before Rush, there were guys like Bob Grant feeding that same audience).

The reports would call attention to how much of the budget was devoted to "entitlements", spun in a way to let people wave the number around when ranting about how much we were spending on "welfare". By far the most money in those figures were Social Security and Medicare, but that little tidbit was buried in the thick of the report where it didn't matter except as ass-covering. The summary and press release would decry the great burden of entitlements, and it would be used as ammunition against aid programs.

And since the same spin teams were busy equating "welfare" with "lazy black people living it up on your dime". Under other circumstances people might have stopped and thought "wait, that doesn't add up", but toss in racism (doesn't have to be foaming Klansman-grade racism, just "racist enough&quot and any skepticism was shut down. Some people are convinced there's a vast army of do-nothings laying about on their dime.