It'll drive all my crazy right-wing Florida friends nuts!

Even when it slaps them upside the face....

Scary shit. Scary OP. thanks for posting....

Gawd, I can't believe I read Atlas Shrugged cover to cover in high school. I remember those speeches that went on for ever.

Around 9th grade, I saw it at a Woolworth's for cheap and had a vague idea it was an important book. I bought it, started reading and just couldn't finish. No plot, all the characters spoke the same way, plodding use of language, dull ideas. I read so many books, so many of which I don't remember, but I guess I remember this one because it was so disappointing.

it is perfectly fine for big banks and major, multinational corporations can accept bucket loads of welfare sucked out of our taxes because they are not idle.

I thought that profits and gigantanormous CEO pay/benefits were the formal income model.

So, profit, plus "justified" welfare income, (adjusted for person hood and number of subsidies) is now the accepted definition, then.

"Presumably, then, voters imagine that pledges to slash government spending mean cutting programs for the idle poor, not things they themselves count on. And this is a confusion politicians deliberately encourage.

For example, when Mr. Romney responded to the new Obama budget, he condemned Mr. Obama for not taking on entitlement spending — and, in the very next breath, attacked him for cutting Medicare.

The truth, of course, is that the vast bulk of entitlement spending goes to the elderly, the disabled, and working families, so any significant cuts would have to fall largely on people who believe that they don’t use any government program.

The message I take from all this is that pundits who describe America as a fundamentally conservative country are wrong. Yes, voters sent some severe conservatives to Washington. But those voters would be both shocked and angry if such politicians actually imposed their small-government agenda."