Quote Originally Posted by Iris lily View Post
But sorry, I also think there's a ton of truth in it for many Obama supporters, certainly not all. Perhaps not even a majority of Obama voters--yet. It's not yet a majority who expect the "stuff." But it will be, the tide has turned and the tipping point is past, I think.
The "I want stuff" ship sailed long ago. You're on it. I'm on it. Bill O'Reilly is on it. Romney is on it. Obama is on it. Every American we know is on that ship and it left harbor a long time ago.

The discussion these days is what "stuff" we want for our tax dollars. There are direct costs for military preparedness, for maintaining highways, for addressing financial malfeasance and pollution, for offering Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. Once those expenses are out of the government purse, there is less to spend on other things.

But Mitt Romney loves his 14% tax rate, and that is a government benefit, too, in that capital gains are not taxed at the same rate as earned income of similar size, so the government takes in less than it ordinarily would. The Bush tax cuts are a government benefit even if they don't show up in poor neighborhoods in major American cities. Donald Trump dangles his big office buildings in front of governments expecting some sort of break or special treatment for plopping that building in a particular jurisdiction. A farmer accepting payment from the government for not growing crops one year on some acreage is receiving a government benefit.

All of those benefits cost money just as much as directly paying a doctor to perform a "free" preventive-care physical. Unless one is Henry David Thoreau, living on one's own outside of some pond somewhere, you, too, are receiving government "stuff". It's just that some of us recognize that it's not a rich-person vs. poor-person thing.