Shut It Down

My wife absolutely hates this joke, but I'm going to tell it anyway:

A guy is trying unsuccessfully to get a stubborn mule to move. He tries coaxing it with a carrot, he tries kicking it, he even lights a fire under it, but the stubborn mule doesn’t budge.

However the man’s friend comes by convincing the mule her can get the mule to move. “Okay, go head and try” the mule owner says. The friend picks up a 2 x 4 and smacks the mule in the head right between the eyes, stunning the mule.

“You didn’t get him to move", the mule owner decries. But his friend says, “Maybe not... but I got his attention.”

House speaker John Boehner often touts what he believes is the will of “The American People”. In Conservative minds this translates into the ideology of less government, specifically less government spending. So after the tax status for the richest 2% of the wealthiest Americans was secured, we set about the business of cutting back on those expensive “entitlement” programs… you know, the ones that represent about 14% of our national budget. (The hugely expensive wars in the Middle-east oddly appear nowhere in the equatinon.)

Now many of us laughed at the dolt in the town hall meeting back during the 2008 campaign who yelled he wanted the Government to keep your Government hands off his Medicare. Most just thought he was just an eccentric nut - but it turns out that there are huge percentages of Americans who have NO CLUE that they benefit DIRECTLY from their government!

Recently discovered: 44% of Social Security recipients don't think they are receiving any "Government" help. Likewise, 39% of Medicare recipients, 43% of Unemployment benefit recipients, 42% of Veterans… the list goes on.¹

There is an old Chinese curse that goes something like “I hope you get what you wish for”. So I am personally rooting for Congress to pull off the government shut down! I want millions of Tea Baggers and less-government morons to NOT get their Social Security checks, disability payments, VA benefits...²

Maybe... just MAYBE, it will get their attention.

~~~

1. “Keep Your Government Hands Off My Government Programs!” - NY Times, Febuary 11, 2011

2. Sadly, in actuality, the government we love-to-hate will nevertheless refrain from smacking our most intellectually limited citizens in the face with a 2 x 4 and send out SS and other benefit checks anyway, thereby further cementing their mental disconnect. See, ya just can't depend on that gol-dang gov-n-ment to do anything right.