Tea Partiers Still Hooked on Handouts

A new WSJ/NBC News poll provides a glimpse of just how dependent on big government benefits Americans have become - even amongst the Tea Party.

The anti-government “throw-the-bums-out” crowds have had their chance to speak out on how to curtail the deficit and what to do with those hated entitlements that are the antithesis of the America they pine for.  A new WSJ/NBC News poll though provides a glimpse of just how dependent on big government entitlements Americans have become--even amongst the Tea Party.

Not that this should be a surprise to anyone watching the slow shift of the American mindset from citizen, to consumer, to ward of the State over the past century.  According to the Wall Street Journal who co-sponsored the poll,  “Americans across all age groups and ideologies said by large margins that it was ‘unacceptable'  to make significant cuts in entitlement programs in order to reduce the federal deficit.”

No wonder President Obama in his State of the Union speech only paid lip service to Social Security and Medicare reform, mentioning each by name only once in over 7,000 words of text. He knows what Americans are really about as summed up in the old adage: “It all depends on whose ox is being gored.”

And the poll exposes the hypocrisy of many of the Tea Party movement who claim to be for smaller government and a return to a libertarian Nirvana that never existed in the first place.   Consider: by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, self-described Tea Partiers (who tend to be older and whiter than the population as a whole) declared significant cuts to Social Security "unacceptable." Gee, there’s a shock.

In fact, as the poll reveals, less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the mounting deficit about which they cry warnings of impending doom.

Before Tea Partiers accuse me of trashing them, let it be known that although I am not one of them, I have defended the movement many times when I felt it was unfairly attacked by the left. You see, I agree whole-heartedly with their deficit concerns.  But, unlike them, I am willing to give up my benefits to set things right.  They clearly are not -- Gadsden flags and tricorn hats notwithstanding. So I am clearly the minority… even among my own kind it seems.

Despite the fact that such entitlements are already in the red, when asked directly if they thought cuts to Medicare were necessary to "significantly reduce" the deficit, 18% of respondents said yes, while 54% said no; the rest were not sure or had no opinion. On Social Security, 22% said cuts would be needed, while 49% said they weren't.

Well then…now what guys?  What’s your plan then?

Ah, the poll goes on to say that there are two solutions that more than half of those responding would support.  And they reveal that many Americans are, in fact, quite selfish.

Solution one: More than half support extending the retirement age to 69 by 2075.  Or as I like to call it, the “deal with it after I’m dead” solution.  Of course a person in their 40s and above in 2011 would have no problem with this.

I am 43, in very good health, but I am not Methuselah.  The odds of me being anywhere but with my Maker in 64 years are pretty slim.   So, even though many Americans rant against saddling future generations with a deficit, they’ll be damned if they don’t cash in all their Social Security chips before they check out.  Very noble.

Solution two: Over 60% of those polled support reducing payments to wealthier Americans.  In other words, when it comes to their benefits at risk, it’s time to what?  Spread the wealth by reducing my benefits so theirs will remain intact because I made more money.  Penalize the rich?  Honestly, it matters little to me as I expect reduced benefits anyway.  It’s just the principle… and the Tea Party and similar movements are very much about “principle.”   Until it comes down to sacrificing their precious benefits, that is.  Then they suddenly gravitate towards that very wealth redistribution model over which they crucified Mr. Obama during the campaign through Joe the Plummer.

So what this latest poll shows is that when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are, most Americans, even Nobamanauts, show their true colors and demonstrate that we are hopelessly mired in an entitlement culture that in the end will only be solved by one guy: Mr. Mathematics.  An American retiring today will have put in roughly $114,000 in contributions into Medicare but will receive over $355,000 in services throughout their ever lengthening retirement.  If left unaddressed, this formula will eventually collapse anyway so one way or the other, austerity is a comin’.  Tick-tock.

More than seven in 10 tea party backers feared GOP lawmakers would not go far enough in cutting spending. “It may be hard to understand why someone would try to jump off a cliff" to solve the debt crisis, said pollster Bill McInturff  of his fellow Republicans, "unless you understand that they are being chased by a tiger, and that tiger is the tea party."  Yet, as his own survey shows, this is a false premise as only one in three will be waving pitchforks.  The other two-thirds, suffering from an astounding case of cognitive dissonance, will be cashing their checks.  Certainly, the Tea Party verve and libertarian ire that demands “brave measures” from the new Congress to get the deficit under control dissipates dramatically when the firing squad of benefit reductions is trained on them.  Then, suddenly, they propose to kick the can down the road to their kids, and to spread the wealth.  Sound familiar?  “Oh… and keep government out of our lives!”  Riiight.

Hypocrisy is not an exclusive property of the far left it seems.  So good luck to the GOP in their quest to make significant cuts in the deficit… If they’re serious, I hope they like being one-termers.  What do you think?

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