Many Americans are in denial about their dependence on social spending, says Mark Engler.
During the Tea Party’s heyday, you could find variations of the ‘Keep Your Government Hands Off My Welfare State’ sign at rallies around the US. My favourite was a handmade version by a woman who had written out her slogan in black marker and then added, in red, a hammer and sickle to symbolize the peril of socialized medicine. The placard read: ‘Government Keep Your Hands Off My Medicare.’
Ideology and reality had been set on a collision course, and this absurd mash-up was the result.
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