Ever since Reagan’s “Welfare Queens” (and probably long before that), attacking the social safety net as a Public Teat for smirking slackers has been a reliable technique for working up outrage among tax-weary citizens who take Medicare, Social Security, farm subsidies and Occupational Disability checks for granted, yet are nonetheless easily convinced that it’s “the other guy” who’s “picking their pocket.”

To modify a great line from (I think) George Will—If every piece of social legislation ever enacted were suddenly rescinded, the Nation would revert to Forest. And all those angry taxpayers would be in the same boat as the “slackers” they detest.

Obviously, this is a popular GOP whipping-stick right now, since radio hatecaster Billy Cunningham couldn’t stop repeating last night that “America is the only nation earth where the poor people are fat. The LAST thing we should be giving them is Food Stamps.”

I hate this shit (and Tom Delay) with a fiery passion. I have a friend in Tampa who has been out of work for a year now. He sold his motorcycle and his truck to stave off disaster. If he hadn’t inherited his parents’ house, he would be living on the street. He has managed to squeak by with the help of unemployment benefits, but they ended in Feb. His best friend was also laid off and still has house payments, which means he’s close to foreclosure.

Yet these guys aren’t bums and they’re mortified to take government help. But in the face of reality, the jobs are not there, they’re both over fifty, and they are looking at a very grim future.

Fuck Tom Delay and all the other Republican assholes.

donnah, another thing that really makes me angry about all this is that then the Dems feel like they have to justify it on the basis that extending unemployment actually creates jobs because unemployment funds get spent out in the community.  I don’t doubt for a second that that’s true but the real reason for assisting people who are unemployed is that it’s the right thing to do.  In our society we don’t just let people starve because they lose their jobs.  It’s a values thing and I would just like to see them stand up for it.

Oh please, please, please Baby Jesus. Please let the Repugs make “Get a job you doity bums!” their new battle cry.

marindenver, you’re right. But when can we count on the Dems to stand up for anything? I’m sick of that, too.

Yeah, livin’ off those unemployment bennies sure beats workin’ fer a real paycheck, yessir.  Why, I can’t tell you the thrill I got when my first check came, oh, a year and a half ago.  Wow, half of my regular income!  And then, when those bennies ran out and I was still unemployed, my new bennies were based on my old bennies, making my income a fourth of what it used to be.  Now that’s what I call livin’ high!