When the nation found itself balancing the budget and pulling in big surpluses, voters took the good times for granted. They felt cocky enough to vote a Republican president, like George W. Bush, into office (I know, the Supreme Court made him president, but Bush got a lot of votes).
That brought about 9/11 and the Great Recession.
Now a majority of voters who have taken our social safety nets for granted, along with a multitude of government programs and services, are giving the Republicans a chance to cut spending and government largess.
HuffintonPost: According to new data crunched by Cornell University's Suzanne Mettler, large numbers of Americans who receive benefits from government social programs nonetheless tell pollsters they "have not used a government social program." And when I mean large, I mean large. For example, a majority of those who have received federally subsidized student loans, 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries and 40 percent of G.I. bill recipients say they have not used a government social program.
These numbers go a long way to explaining why the economic debate in our country is so insane.
Indeed, at a moment when taxes have hit a historic low, most politicians -- from presidents to governors to state legislators -- insist we must further cut taxes and shrink allegedly "Big Government." And they are finding a receptive audience in the general public because, as the numbers show, so many Americans wrongly believe they don't receive direct financial benefits from government
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