What A Country!

Yakov Smirnoff never knew how good he had it. Here we are, a year and a half after The Recession ended, and people are still looking for jobs and shopping with food stamps. So much so that Republican demigod Newt Gingrich has labelled the Democrats as "the party of food stamps." I don't know if Newt has been to the A&P lately, but it's pretty hard to party on four hundred and fifty dollars a month.
Forty-one million people are on food stamps in America, up from thirty-five million a year ago. Newt wants us to look to his party as "the party of paychecks." The once and future face of the GOP insists, "Most Americans would like to get a paycheck. Most Americans would not like to be forced to have food stamps handed out by liberal Democrats." The mental image of those left-wing ninnies strong-arming their way into people's homes to impose their charity on the otherwise hard-working families of our great nation is a painful one to me. How, exactly, does one force food stamps on an individual? It's my guess that the choice to accept this government assistance is not one that is taken lightly by any family or individual. The whole idea runs in hard contrast to the image presented by so many conservatives of the welfare state lining up with their lazy hands out, expecting to be paid for doing as little as possible.
But Newt wants their votes. If you feel victimized by Democrats for being forced to take their smelly old food stamps, and here comes a guy who tells you that he's got a paycheck waiting for you right outside your polling place on election day, you can bet there will be a lot of proud Americans willing to do the right thing. He wants you to know that the Republicans will cut taxes and spending so that you can get your job back, and get off the dole. The jobs that went away didn't start disappearing when the current administration moved into the White House. Nor have we miraculously turned the boat around and started sailing for greener shores. There is enough blame to go around, but you can't eat blame.
Did I mention Newt is considering running for President in 2012? He needs a real job. No word on when his food stamps run out.