You're damn straight there has been free stuff. Big stuff. The Dubya tax cuts (in which the actual legislation called for them to be temporary, and for some reason must now be permanent, they have already been extended once), these cuts simultaneously with the Dubya wars, unfunded, the republican expansion of Medicare, unfunded. In power, they expand government health care..... as minority they demonize it and want to voucherize it.
In response to this fiscal insanity, Obama had to infuse a stimulus, among other actions, to prevent total economic collapse.
Now it's time to finally pay up. And the republicans fight tax increases?---"What the hell do you mean sacrifice, we didn't have to sacrifice while the Iraq war waged. Why should we have to sacrifice now?"
They proclaim themselves super-patriots and they tag the opposition as unamerican in one way or another every single election cycle. And when you ask a stars'n'bars chickenhawk to sacrifice--particularly if you ask for the precious sacrifice of a little something of their most holy wallet (The only item they have TO sacrifice), you are clearly and insultingly asking way too much.
And just think of the young people who sacrified ALL they had in Iraq. They're dead now. The surviving families crushed. They are sacrificing post-death.
So Mr. McConnell and Mister Boehner, if you MUST maintain the opposition to tax increases on the wealthy in fear of your tea party, I hope you can someday write your memoirs with a straight face. Not to mention clear conscience. It's YOUR team that preaches about individual judgement awaiting all of us.
That would include you as well, I trust.
By the way, have you considered the possibility that you lost the election because of the free stuff your guy handed EVERYONE, whether they wanted it or not.
And let us behold their early balloons concerning compromise....."We can do revenue, but it cannot be done in the form of a few percentage points on rates."
What we are dealing with here is the grotesque. The macabre.