Sunday, June 13, 2010

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Steve Benen looks at Obama's appeal to Congress for $50 billion in direct aid to local governments to save firefighters, cops, and teachers' jobs and asks:
In what universe do Democrats think they'll be better off politically with "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters"?
In the right-wing talk radio universe where multi-millionaire personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh declare that teachers, police and firefighters are characterized first and foremost by their status as being unionized government employees, not by their value to society as a whole, and are therefore now The Enemy.

Only in America is risking your life to protect people or to teach children a job so unimportant and reviled that we would actively seek to cut them.  The next step of course is to declare that crime has increased, fire casualties and damages have gone up, and schools are getting worse...and then blame the government for all three and start demanding more cuts for these "lazy union slobs".

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The answer to Steve Benen's question is "A universe where the taxpaying voters who pay for teachers, police, and firefighters outnumber the teachers, police, and firefighters."

You know, reality.

Unknown said...

I've always pictured the imaginary world in which Cajun lives to be someplace empty of life and color. Kind of like Tron. The older, crappier one.

Cajun zooms about at hyperspeed, seeking out liberalism with his Heartometer. When it detects empathy, it goes into overdrive.

Leaping from his racer, Cajun presses the buttons on his laser cuff and blasts the liberal with death rays.

(Since it's all taking place in virtual reality, no actual liberals are ever ever harmed.)

Kerry said...

Um, Cajun, you DO realize that firefighter, cops, and teachers PAY TAXES on their salaries, right?

I'm guessing the answer is "No."

Every single person in America is a "taxpayer" to some extent -- even the homeless guy with a bottle in a bag paid excise taxes on the booze. I(Corporations are a different question, of course.)

So calling yourself "a taxpayer" as if that's some special conferred honor is BS. It's about as special as being a carbon-based life form.

Related Posts with Thumbnails