This is for all of you who despaired over the infamous incident last Monday night, on the 10th anniversary of Glenn Beck's favorite day.
And I'm not talking about what happened to Champ Bailey
This is the incident where in tea partiers gleefully cheered for the death of a fictional well-to-do 30 year old man who willingly forgoes health insurance (who is a distant cousin of the terrorist who has information that could prevent an imminent nuclear attack, only if Dick Cheney had permission to chop the terrorist's body parts without anesthesia in front of the extended family. Both were created by our wonderfully imaginative Presidential Debate Moderators) and gets a serious disease.
You couldn't understand what creates this mindset?
Well an astute commenter (BTW, the commenter in the NYT are actual geniuses, in comparison to the commenters from all the newspaper/tv stations websites all over America --- and they set stupid people like Friedman and Nocera straight all the freaking time) elucidates below the fold.
http://community.nytimes.com/...
The primary difference between liberals and conservatives, at least so far as social safety nets is concerned, has always seemed to be this:
For liberals, it is better to give a benefit to somebody who doesn't deserve it than risk somebody who really needs the benefit to fall through the cracks.
For conservatives, the most important thing is to make sure that nobody undeserving takes advantage of the system, even if it means some folks don't get the help they need.
Liberals would look at unemployment benefits and want to make sure everyone got help while conservatives screamed that some of those on unemployment were not accepting job offers, so better to cut everyone off at 99 weeks.
oh...and Krugman's column was pretty good too. (http://www.nytimes.com/... )
very few of those who die from lack of medical care look like Mr. Blitzer’s hypothetical individual who could and should have bought insurance. In reality, most uninsured Americans either have low incomes and cannot afford insurance, or are rejected by insurers because they have chronic conditions.
(minor spelling updates, sorry)