The National Journal’s latest poll on the federal safety net finds the shocking news that the more money you make, the less you believe America needs as much federal spending on the poor, but not all of the responses were of the Allow Them To Consume Sweet Baked Comestibles variety, either.
The survey found a generally receptive audience, especially among whites, for intensifying arguments from Romney and other GOP leaders that too many Americans now rely on benefits from government programs. The Census Bureau recently reported that nearly 49 percent of American households contained at least one person receiving benefits from a government program as of late 2010.
In the poll, 53 percent of those surveyed said they were most concerned that “the government taxes workers too much to fund programs for people who could get by without help,” while only 38 percent said their principal concern was that “federal programs … don’t provide enough of a safety net for people who need help to get by.”
That question produced a moderately sized racial split: 56 percent of whites, compared with 44 percent of nonwhites, said they were most concerned about government taxing workers too much. Republicans, young people, independents, and those earning more than $75,000 annually also tilted most sharply toward concern about excessive taxation, rather than an inadequate safety net. White independents, by nearly 2-to-1, worried more about taxes than holes in the safety net.
That’s the bad news. There is actually some good news.
But on other fronts, those polled leaned more toward positions held by Democrats. Another question noted that since the recession began, the number of Americans receiving federal benefits like food stamps and housing vouchers has significantly increased. Asked why those rolls have swelled, a 54 percent majority said it was because “high unemployment has left more people in need of government assistance.” Just 41 percent agreed that “government is providing benefits for too many people who don’t actually need them.”
This question generated a much wider racial split. While 45 percent of whites said these programs are growing because government is dispensing too many benefits, just 33 percent of minorities agreed; more than three-fifths of nonwhites said the programs are growing mostly because of high unemployment. On this question, a narrow majority of independents blamed the economy, not overly generous government policies, for the growing caseloads.
As important, the survey found Americans unconvinced that safety-net programs represent a major source of the deficit problem. When asked to identify the biggest reason the federal government faces large deficits for the coming years, just 3 percent of those surveyed said it was because of “too much government spending on programs for the elderly”; only 14 percent said the principal reason was “too much government spending on programs for poor people.” Those explanations were dwarfed by the 24 percent who attributed the deficits primarily to excessive defense spending, and the 46 percent plurality who said their principal cause was that “wealthy Americans don’t pay enough in taxes.” While minorities were more likely than whites to pin the blame on the wealthy avoiding taxes, even 43 percent of whites agreed.
So Americans may believe that too many people are on programs, but they also know the reason why these programs are straining the country’s budget are the Bush tax cuts. That message is getting through to people too, which is why allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on the wealthy is a no-brainer for the President and the Dems, on top of being popular policy, it’s going to be economically necessary to do to ever get the budget under control. They might even actually do it, too. If we make them, that is.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
People want benefits but don’t want to pay for them? Color me shocked.
deep
It’s still sad that these numbers are anything greater than 0.
WTF is wrong with people??
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@deep: Most people have no clue what our budget covers even at a high level. On average, Americans believe that 25% of our budget goes to foreign aid, and they would like to see it reduced to 10%, when we actually spend < 1%.
CarolDuhart2
One thing I’ve been reading are accounts of people who used to be middle class or even higher who have suddenly been downsized and having to go on food stamps for the first time, and finding out that a lot of the stuff they were told by the Right is not true. At first they are ashamed, but when nothing terrible happens, they come to terms with it.
Villago Delenda Est
@deep:
They revel in their ignorance. They are proud of it. They wear it on their sleeves.
burnspbesq
The Federal trial of the Hutaree militia (remember them?) began on Monday. According to counsel for one of the defendants, it was just a social club that liked to play with guns.
The trial is expected to last 6-8 weeks. One of the accused has been found not competent to stand trial and is undergoing psychiatric treatment.
This should be good for a large number of eye roll/head desk moments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/us/accused-hutaree-militia-was-a-social-club-defense-says.html?_r=2&ref=us
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: They are convinced that liberals are just as stupid as we think they are.
Waldo
Christ, will you people stop crying about handouts already?! The job creators can’t focus on creating jobs!!
deep
@CarolDuhart2:
While I appreciate your optimism, I’m afraid Villago Delenda Est @ 5 is probably more true to reality. Most that have been forced to “come to terms with it” are very bitter at their lot in life and blame the Democrats for it. They convince themselves that they are in fact NOT getting government aid and those ni88er welfare queens are still stealing their tax dollars (even though they haven’t even had a job lately to PAY taxes.)
Their cognitive dissonance will drive this nation toward civil war eventually. :(
gex
@Villago Delenda Est: Indeed. They mock intellectualism and understanding and they prefer following orders and going with their guts. And their guts tell them foreigners, minorities, women, and gays are the cause of all their problems.
@deep: If we didn’t let minorities and women abuse EEO rules, there wouldn’t be a job market problem. Now will people please get back in their proper places?
ETA: Yes, I AM growing to loathe these people. That’s not good probably.
MattF
“Made of fusion”? Cringe. The sun is, in fact, hot– I’ll grant you that.
sherparick
One of the problems with poll questions like this is that I would expect that most whites answering this poll don’t include Social Security and Medicare as part of the “Federal Safety Net” programs. After all, those are programs “they paid for” and not programs targeted for the “undeserving other” (usually Black, Brown, under 30 people, or a combination of the above). That this meme is very much in the forefront of Republican candicates strategy is Newt’s choice of labeling Obama the “Food Stamp President” and the Mitttser’s response to the 2013 Obama Budget as “cutting Medicare” even as he reams the President as a big spending Kenyan Socialist.”
Although hindered by Corporate Democrats and “Accountability Liberals,” as Fred Hiatt likes to call them who want to reform Medicare and Social Security out of existence, the constant truth that should be presented to people is that if they want Social Security and Medicare to continue, then the Bush tax cuts must be repealed and the wealthy should be asked to pay some of the money back that the Government has firehosed in their direction the last 30 years. That these are just more zombie lies propagated by the defenders of the wealthy, David Brooks and his fellow travelers on the WaPo editorial page and at AEI and Cato who see their job as comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. See http://www.epi.org/blog/ and http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/
some guy
“the government taxes workers too much to fund programs for people who could get by without help,”
*** The United States currently pays around $20 billion per year to farmers in direct subsidies as “farm income stabilization.”
***The sugar program that Lugar is looking to repeal is a complex system involving marketing allotments, price supports, purchase guarantees, quotas and tariffs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for making sure that domestic producers maintain at least 85 percent of the market. The USDA limits imports from 40 countries to keep prices above world levels. If prices drop below fixed rates, a support system consisting of federal loans to processors is imposed. Recipients can pay off those loans with sugar.
*** The three largest fossil fuel subsidies were:
Foreign tax credit ($15.3 billion)
Credit for production of non-conventional fuels ($14.1 billion)
Oil and Gas exploration and development expensing ($7.1 billion)
Schlemizel
@deep:
I’m afraid you are right. Worse, when they do finally get a job at their new, greatly reduced, wage they will quickly forget that it was any other way & UI and food stamps are for losers that hard workin Murkins should have to bail out.
You’re funny, like we have ever been successful at forcing them to do anything. When there has been success it is not us but the great low-information brigade that provided the muscle like on the saving Social Security effort back under Boy Blunder.
some guy
The subsidies the nuclear and fossil-fuel industry receive — and have received for many years — make their product “affordable.” Those subsidies take many forms, but the most significant are their “externalities.” Externalities are real costs, but they are foisted off on the community instead of being paid by the companies that caused them.[14]
Paul Epstein, director of Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment, has examined the health and environmental impacts of coal, including: mining, transportation, combustion in power plants and the impact of coal’s waste stream. He found that the “life cycle effects of coal and its waste cost the American public $333 billion to over $500 billion dollars annually“. These are costs the coal industry is not paying and which fall to the community in general. Eliminating that subsidy would dramatically increase the price of coal-fired electricity.
heaven forfend that Charles and David Koch stop getting their subsidies.
Villago Delenda Est
@deep:
That is my fear as well. These people refuse, absolutely refuse, to listen to others. You can explain to them, in detail, how things work, and they tune it out. It’s too complicated for them. They want simple answers that can be put on a bumpersticker. They do not want to understand, if understanding involves more than 5 seconds of thought.
SenyorDave
For several decades many Americans (mostly white, largely blue collar) have been exposed to talk radio and Fox News with its 24/7 underlying message that the minorities are lazy, violent freeloaders who all get government handouts. There will be a special place in hell for Murdoch, Limbaugh and the rest of the media wingnuts.
Villago Delenda Est
@SenyorDave:
You have to go back to Nixon and Reagan (Roger Ailes of Faux Nooze worked for both on their campaigns) for the origins of all this. Faux and Limbaugh are just the current peddlers of the hatred.
Linda Featheringill
@SenyorDave:
These attitudes were rampant before any of today’s villains were launched. I remember that well. Sorry. People are crappy.
Bruce S
re “13 – some guy”: I had that same thought. There’s more than a kernel of truth in the assertion. Various corporate credits, subsidies and tax advantages fit the description. I have no idea if that knowledge had any impact on those polled and their responses.
Rafer Janders
This stuff makes me spitting mad. I’m wealthy, and I grew up wealthy, but I also went through a period in my life when I was dirt-poor. Having that experience, and seeing how difficult it actually was to get any aid, and how inadequate the aid was, inoculated me for the rest of my life against this kind of nonsense.
I sometimes think that instead of a national draft, we should just sentence every college graduate to live for two years on minimum wage. They’d come out of it with a newfound appreciation for the value of a safety net.
FlipYrWhig
See, this kind of result _doesn’t_ give me hope:
They never poll the question in the right way. People who think the government spends too much on handouts to the undeserving don’t think the elderly are undeserving, and can be shamed into thinking the poor are deserving. They think the principal reason for the deficit is “too much government spending on programs for lazy bastards, especially the darkies.” Pollsters never put that question to the test. But that’s the answer. That’s where they think the money goes, and that’s entirely why non-rich Republicans vote Republican.
Someguy
We really need to cut defense drastically. It’s sucking 525 billion out of the 3.8 trillion budget, that’s nearly 14% for defense contractor welfare and Bush’s needless wars. The budget is way too small to provide any sort of a bump to the economy; the GDP is around 14 trillion and 3.8 trillion just isn’t sigificant enough to have the Keynsian effect we need to get out of this slump. So we need to raise taxes and boost spending – a ~60% tax on corporate dividend earnings that get disbursed is a good start but it’s not enough, a cap gains tax on sale of stock and equities of just 15% is totally ludicrous, and as Warren Buffet pointed out, that should be taxed as income (at least) or if not then that at the higher dividend rate. Looks like we’re getting austerity though and no significant tax hikes. Bastards.
Trakker
Sounds huge, but just what’s included in that 49%? I’m a retired federal employee who gets a pension from the government. While its a benefit it was earned and a lot of my money was withheld each paycheck for 34 years to fund it.
So if the 49% includes a bunch of retirees or Social Security recipients who paid into the system all their life, then that fact should accompany the 49% figure. It’s not like 49% of our households are mooching off Uncle Sam.
Rafer Janders
while only 38 percent said their principal concern was that “federal programs … don’t provide enough of a safety net for people who need help to get by.”
To paraphrase Jon Stewart, when someone is in a safety net in the first place, it’s already a sign that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Reposting what I posted a week or two ago about prospects for the Second American Civil War:
“The only thing that dissuades me from believing that is how full of shit the average conservative is. Taibbi had these guys pegged when he described them as ‘a hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment.’ The notion of these entitled jackasses starting a revolution should be terrifying, but in context it mostly ends up just being pathetic in a hilarity-inducing kind of way.”
Maybe I’m wrong. Hope not.
Mnemosyne
There are definitely some interesting results in there — I think the president’s argument that rich people aren’t paying their fair share is getting some traction. Republicans managed to make “your taxes are too high” their mantra for years, but people may be realizing that it can be simultaneously true that working people’s taxes are too high and rich people’s taxes are too low.
FlipYrWhig
I’m POSITIVE that if you added to that poll on “the biggest reason the federal government faces large deficits for the coming years” a politely-worded response like “too much government spending on programs for racial minorities,” it would win, hands down and going away.
Rafer Janders
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity:
It’s like that scene in the “Much Apu About Nothing” episode of The Simpsons where an angry mob, irate that their taxes have been raised to pay for the bear patrol, descends on Mayor Quimby’s office:
Quimby [to his aide]: Are these idiots getting dumber or just louder?
Aide [glancing down at chart]: Ah, both, sir. They still want to keep the bear patrol, but they don’t want to pay for it.
Mnemosyne
Okay, not to be the nym police, but can some guy, Some Guy, and Someguy choose new nyms? I can’t keep you all straight.
wonkie
If I was asked, “Do you think too many people are dependent upon government funded services.” I would say,”Yes.”
However that does ot mean that I thik peole shouuld be thrown off those services or that the services shuld be defunded. I think it sucks to have an economy so tiltied troward servig the rich at everyone else’s expense that half the nation needs government funded services for survival! The questions o these polls usually suck.
Culture of Truth
I don’t see a civil war a-comin. I see a country that elected Barack Obama once and is likely to do it again.
Meanwhile the GOP is cracking up.
FlipYrWhig
@Trakker: Is it not the case that current Social Security recipients have been being paid in excess of what they paid into the system?
scav
OT Speaking of The Sun, I don’t know if this is Fusion or Fission but it should provide Fireworks: Sun staff line up human rights challenge to News Corp inquiry team. In-coming In-fighting. hee.
Rafer Janders
@Villago Delenda Est:
“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” — H.L. Mencken
Mnemosyne
I’m very curious about this statistic. Does anyone know what the heck it’s supposed to mean? Which government benefits? Does it include tax credits?
If it was part of the question, I’m not surprised at all that they got a majority of respondents saying that too many people are getting government benefits, because it seems awfully high to me, too, but I’m enough of a political junkie to be suspicious of it.
artem1s
well, if you only count cash payouts I suppose. cause frankly if anyone in the household drives on a road, attended a public school, have water and sewer, electricity, natural gas, fire and ambulance services, breaths clean air, etc, etc, etc….
100% of the households receive some king of government benefits. That’s the message that is not getting across. No one does this by themselves and if you are of the 49% currently getting emergency or relief services its because you aren’t part of the 1% who benefited from a network of tax laws that allowed for generational wealth to accumulate over time with only a small percentage of households.
i mean, i get what the report indicates but am still sick and tired of the mentality that the people who are the government are somehow separate from the government. or that the government is something that can be done away with, without doing away with the people. and only some people should be shamed for using the benefits afforded by a well run bureaucracy.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
I am some guy. what’s so confusing?
gene108
This election will come down to this: Will The Obama-Democrat War on Christians get more Republicans to vote than all this fancy talk economic mumbo jumbo will get Democrats to vote.
In 2004, The Kerry-Democrat War on Christians (i.e. Gay Marriage) turned out GOP voters that pushed Bush, Jr. over the top, despite most people agreeing with the Kerry-Democrat economic mumbo-jumbo.
In 2008, the Obama-Democrat economic mumbo-jumbo got people more excited to vote Democrat, plus Sarah Palin being a heart beat from the Presidency scared the shit out of the American public.*
* Obama and McCain were statistically tied in polls after the conventions. Then Lehman Brothers imploded and the economy was a big deal. I think, if McCain picked Romney as V.P., he could’ve had a better showing or maybe have won in 2008. For all Romney’s flaws that have been exposed over the past 5 years, a short 6 week “intro” to Romney probably wouldn’t have exposed those flaws and his private business cred would’ve have probably been a plus with the non-27%, at the time.
Chris
@Linda Featheringill:
And I would add that it’s true in Soshulist Europe too. The notion that “those fucking immigrants [usually Muslim] are infesting us with crime, leeching off our welfare, and refusing to adopt our values” is very, very widespread there. It hasn’t translated into overall hatred for government programs or the welfare state, thank God, but the notion that welfare should go to the Right People, that these people are white, and that that’s not what’s happening is just as common over there as here.
I was reading the Wikipedia article on the French Soshulist Party the other day. Apparently, a local think tank released a “Left Strategy for 2012” last year, which said among other things “suggests that workers should not continue to be a main subject of the Socialist Party’s campaign platform, considering that the working class has lost its political significance and has moved toward the National Front [the fascists] nowadays.” Damn, that has a familiar ring to it, eh?
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: The definition of “government program” is a mess in that sentence. I assume they mean “assistance” program, i.e. a check of some kind.
Chris
@Linda Featheringill:
And I would add that those attitudes are rampant in Enlightened, Soshulist Europe too. The notion that “those fucking immigrants [usually Muslim] are infesting us with crime, leeching off our welfare, and refusing to adopt our values” is very, very widespread there. It hasn’t translated into overall hatred for government programs or the welfare state, thank God, but the notion that welfare should go to the Right People, that these people are white, and that that’s not what’s happening is just as common over there as here.
I was reading the Wikipedia article on the French Soshulist Party the other day. Apparently, a local think tank released a “Left Strategy for 2012” last year, which said among other things “suggests that workers should not continue to be a main subject of the Soshulist Party’s campaign platform, considering that the working class has lost its political significance and has moved toward the National Front [the fascists] nowadays.” Damn, that has a familiar ring to it, eh?
some guy
@gene108:
the use of “Democrat” in place of Democratic is always a tipoff to Wingnut. please troll more carefully in the future.
gene108
@artem1s:
It’s a chicken-and-egg argument with right-wingers.
The roads, schools, etc. exist because I built this factory to bring people to this location, per right-wingers.
Like most argument with right-wingers, you aren’t going to win people over with logic.
Culture of Truth
Romney: “Obama wants to apologize to the bears! He wants to appease the bears! He doens’t even believe in a bear-free America! He’s made the bear problem worse! I want to double the size of the bear patrol! Unleashed wild lions to attack to the bears!Cut taxes for people with guns so they can shoot the bears! Oh beautiful for bear-free skies for bearless waves of graaaaiiiinn…”
Guy 1: woo
Guy 2: what the hell was that
Rafer Janders
nearly 49 percent of American households contained at least one person receiving benefits from a government program
Sorry, to me this seems entirely too low, as it depends entirely on how one defines “a government program.” If you include things like the home mortgage interest deduction, or federal student loans, or the Earned Income Tax Credit, or even something as taken-for-granted as free public education through high school*,I’d wager that that figure starts to approach 100%.
(Not to mention the day-to-day benefits we all experience in having clean air, clean water, disease-free food, safe pharmaceuticals, etc., all of which are assured for us by various government health and safety agencies).
*After all, as we learned from McMegan, money is fungible, so a dollar not spent on private schools is a dollar freed up for you by the government.
gene108
@some guy:
I’ve been chronic on this forum for couple (?) of years now. It’s like my daily hit, I can’t live without.
I’m not a wing-nut.
I just thought the use of “Democrat” would have a better literary effect for the audience on framing the fact turnout is what wins elections in America and there are single issue Republican voters, who will likely turn out because they feel their religion is under attack, versus independents, young voters, first time or recent voters, etc., who can become apolitical, even though national polls will pick them up as supporting Democratic (happy now?) positions.
The only polls that matters are about what likely voters think and who they will vote for in November.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
Rafer Janders
@Trakker:
Sounds huge, but just what’s included in that 49%? I’m a retired federal employee who gets a pension from the government. While its a benefit it was earned and a lot of my money was withheld each paycheck for 34 years to fund it.
So if the 49% includes a bunch of retirees or Social Security recipients who paid into the system all their life, then that fact should accompany the 49% figure. It’s not like 49% of our households are mooching off Uncle Sam.
Trakker, did you build the roads you drive on or the sewers that deliver water to your house? Did you educate your kids yourself, or did you send them to public schools? Did you take out a mortgage and then claim the mortgage interest deduction on your taxes?
The fact is, you, me, and every other American have been “mooching off” Uncle Sam every day of our lives. But who’s Uncle Sam? It’s us. When I went to school, I learned that government was of the people and by the people — government is us, the American people. So another way to say “mooching off Uncle Sam” is to say it’s Americans helping Americans, all of us giving each other a hand to get ahead in life.
And there’s hardly an American who doesn’t “pay into the system” in some way or other – we all pay taxes of some sort, whether federal income tax, state income tax, real estate taxes, consumption taxes, unemployment and SS tax, etc.
And if someone is so poor that they never pay any precisely because they’re so destitute that they have nothing to give, well, by god, that’s poor and miserable indeed, and I can’t imagine that you’d be against lending a fellow American a helping hand — would you?
Culture of Truth
@gene108: Agree but I think you overstate Palin’s impact and understate how bad a candidate and debater McCain was compared to Bush-Kerry. Just my opinion though.
Palin has seemed ever more foolish since 08, but as you note there wasn’t much time back then to form much an opinion, and heck, she did better in her debate with Biden than McCain, who at one point I believe wandered aimlessly aroud the stage while Obama informed America he would actually get Bin Laden. :)
SFAW
Except when it isn’t. gene108 appeared to be using it as a standalone noun or identifier of a candidate’s political affiliation, as in “You votin’ for the Republican or the Democrat, bubba?” Asking if you’re voting for “the Democratic, Barack Obama” doesn’t really parse.
If he had said, instead, “Democrat Party”, then I’d agree with you.
Someguy
@some guy:
And I am Someguy.
*Neither* of us is Spartacus.
Rafer Janders
@SFAW:
Exactly. In gene108’s post, it’s far more grammatically correct to say “In 2008, the Obama-Democrat economic mumbo-jumbo got people more excited to vote Democrat,” than it would be to say “In 2008, the Obama-Democrat economic mumbo-jumbo got people more excited to vote Democratic.”
Democrat is a noun. Democratic is an adverb, and thus should be used when it modifies a noun, as in Democratic Party or Democratic candidate. In the sentence above, the fact that “Democrat” is functioning as a noun becomes clear if you add the assumed “for the” to it, i.e. “more excited to vote for the Democrat” rather than “more excited to vote for the Democratic.”
SFAW
Rafer –
Adjective, not adverb, but that’s just me being an insufferable prig. Outside of that, I think we’re in violent agreement. Thanks for the help.
scav
Oddly enough, some guy’s adoption of a wide-eyed, dewy, fluttering-eyelashed, ingenue innocence “what’s so confusing?” is strongly perfumed of troll, from my experience.
Jerzy Russian
The Sun is, in fact, made of mostly hydrogen and helium, plus traces of all other elements. It is powered by by nuclear fusion, which takes place in its core. It also rises in the east and sets in the west.
Rafer Janders
@SFAW:
Damnit, of course. Stupid brain.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jerzy Russian:
Well, it appears to rise in the east and set in the west, from a geocentric viewpoint.
From the heliocentric viewpoint, the Earth is rotating, which creates the illusion of rising and setting for the benighted on the surface of the mote of dust.
Benjamin Franklin
@Culture of Truth:
I agree. The Public thinks participatory democracy is flipping a coin at the ballot box before returning home and enjoying a bowl of corn flakes while watching American Idol. There are hornet nests, here and there, (supremacists) but by and large, conservatives are like Vikings with wooden swords. They make a lot of noise, but do very little real damage.
rikryah
this proves what I’ve said all along..
if you wanna talk to folks who vote against their own best interests…..
the White folks here need to be talking to other White folks.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikryah:
According to the other white folks, I’m a ni*CLANG* lover.
Also, I speak in complete sentences, which means I’m an egghead.
They won’t listen to me. Guess I’ll have to use the clue-by-four.
Rawk Chawk
Zandar, what is your theory on why we have “make them do it?”
Why does Obama and the rest have to be PUSHED to do what they were elected to do, if they are really on the progressive side of things?
mdblanche
@MattF: The Sun is made of fusion in the sense that the Republicans are made of fail.
The Other Bob
How wrong is it of me to dream of a second succession of the South? Could we actually encourage them to do it? The South and the idiots who vote there have been the base of operations for the morons and scum of American for too long.
I would just request that the American military pull out and bomb the bases as they leave.
(Sorry to the BJers who live south of the Mason Dixon. You might want to move up here when Jesusland comes to fruition.)
Marmot
Nice headline, Zandar.
So, I know racismis often the favored explanation for Repub moocher-fear. What’s with the 44% of minorities who fear the moocher too? Racism against other minorities?
I’d be comfortable attributing the white respondents’ additional 12 percentage points of moocher-fear to racism. But I think there’s clearly an additional factor behind this sentiment.
FlipYrWhig
@Marmot:
Even a member of a minority group is capable of thinking, “Hey, *I* work hard, not like those other lazy bastards. They just need to put in the time like I did, and stop waiting for a handout.”
Ruckus
I view the safety net the same way I view how our criminal justice system is supposed to work. Innocent till proven guilty and rather a guilty person gets off than an innocent person gets punished. I’d rather someone gamed the system than a needy person can’t get help.
But a segment of our population doesn’t see things this way. They see exactly the opposite.