Michael Gerson and Paul Ryan Lie About What Republicans Say to Each Other About the "Takers"
Taegan Goddard juxtaposes:
"No one is suggesting that what we call our earned entitlements -- entitlements you pay for, like payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security -- are putting you in a 'taker' category. No one would suggest that whatsoever."
--Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), criticizing President Obama's inaugural speech on Laura Ingraham's radio show today.
"Right now about 60 percent of the American people get more benefits in dollar value from the federal government than they pay back in taxes. So we're going to a majority of takers versus makers."
--Ryan, on Washington Watch in June 2010.
And Booman comments:
Michael Gerson: Concern Troll: Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson didn't care for the tone of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address:
Those who oppose this agenda, in Obama’s view, are not a very admirable lot. They evidently don’t want our wives, mothers and daughters to “earn a living equal to their efforts.” They would cause some citizens “to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.” They mistake “absolutism for principle” and “substitute spectacle for politics” and “treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”… They “deny the overwhelming judgment of science” on climate change, don’t want love to be “equal” and apparently contemplate “perpetual war.” For Abraham Lincoln, even the gravest national crimes involved shared fault. For Obama, even the most commonplace policy disagreements indicate the bad faith of his opponents.
Mr. Gerson doesn't address the accuracy of Obama's claims… [T]he "nation of takers" rhetoric has been increasingly prevalent on the right. The Republicans have consistently opposed equal pay for equal work. Republican governors from Ohio to Virginia to Florida did all they could to assure long lines at the polls. Who could argue against the idea that the Norquist anti-tax pledge puts absolutism over principle or that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh substitute spectacle for politics? What kind of reasoned debate involves questioning the president's birth certificate and calling him a Muslim or a Stalinist or a Nazi? What does Gerson think happens to the elderly and parents with special needs kids when you slash Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and other health programs?… The president told the truth. Who cares if the right doesn't like it?
There's something very wrong with you if you support these Republican clowns.
