Um...And They Don't See The Problem?

So not only are the tea-partiers ignorant on taxes, they're happy to get help from the guv'ment when they need it - all while demanding smaller guv'ment and less guv'ment help for everyone else.

From the NYTimes:

When Tom Grimes lost his job as a financial consultant 15 months ago, he called his congressman, a Democrat, for help getting government health care.

Then he found a new full-time occupation: Tea Party activist.

A few paragraphs later we find:

Mr. Grimes, who receives Social Security, has filled the back seat of his Mercury Grand Marquis with the literature of the movement, including Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots” and Frederic Bastiat’s “The Law,” which denounces public benefits as “false philanthropy.”

“If you quit giving people that stuff, they would figure out how to do it on their own,” Mr. Grimes said. [emphasis added.]

Then there's Diana Riemer. She her husband lost his job and now, according to the Times, is a "star of the effort by Freedomworks, a tea-party group."

But Freedomworks isn't really a "tea-party group." It predates the current "tea party" organizations by a few years (dating as it does to 2004). It's also an astro-turf organization that's received tons of money over the years from the main financial backers of the conservative movement.

Grassroots, it ain't.

But back to Diana Riemer:

Ms. Reimer often wells up talking about her work. “I’m respected,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t know why. I don’t know what is so special. But I’m willing to do it.”

She and others who receive government benefits like Medicare and Social Security said they paid into those programs, so they are getting what they deserve.[emphasis added]

Here's a little thought experiment. What do you think the tea partiers would say if they learned that, oh I dunno, some moveon.org community organizer was on some sort of guv'ment benefits like unemployment or Social Security or Medicare?

Quit yer whinin' and get off yer ass go out and get a job! I shouldn't have to pay for your protests!

So should it be any different when the community organizer is a part of a multi-million dollar astro-turf organization like Freedomworks?

Not to mention Riemer has little understanding of Social Security. The money she "paid in" went to benefit those on Social Security at the time. The guv'ment money she gets right now comes from Americans working right now.

It's a plan to redistribute the wealth for the greater good, isn't it? That's Socialism, isn't it?

Then there's Jeff McQueen:

Jeff McQueen, 50, began organizing Tea Party groups in Michigan and Ohio after losing his job in auto parts sales. “Being unemployed and having some time, I realized I just couldn’t sit on the couch anymore,” he said. “I had the time to get involved.”

He began producing what he calls the flag of the Second American Revolution, and drove 700 miles to campaign for Mr. Brown under its banner. Flag sales, so far, are not making him much. But he sees a bigger cause.

“The founding fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,” he said. “They believed in it so much that they would sacrifice. That’s the kind of loyalty to this country that we stand for.”

He blames the government for his unemployment. “Government is absolutely responsible, not because of what they did recently with the car companies, but what they’ve done since the 1980s,” he said. “The government has allowed free trade and never set up any rules.” [emphasis added.]

Um, Jeff? The free trade (or at least the freer trade of the past few decades) occurred when the guv'ment relaxed its rules in an attempt to be less intrusive into the free market system that built this great nation into the shining city on a hill that it's been since God ordained it.

But I am guessing these folks watch a lot of Fox "News" and so they must be well informed, right?