Entitlements

No, this isn't a blog about social security or welfare. It's about the difference between how a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican see the same world, at the same time, with the same problem.

I have a friend who lives in a cold climate. She has several cats she has rescued, spent every extra penny she has on and who now faces a delima. She was renting and the landlord allowed the house to go into foreclosure. It gets even better. The day she lost her job, she came home to find an eviction notice tacked to the door. She has no hope of doing anything but moving or being thrown out in the cold and I mean COLD. When she called me, she was trying to figure out how to live in her car with several cats. She had just paid her rent a few days earlier, which her landlord quickly pocketed knowing the eviction notice was on its way. Thus, she had no money for first, last and security even though she had located a place to move and she was pretty sure she wasn't seeing her last month and security deposit from this last rental. All she asked was for some suggestions on living in her car with cats. She is a Christian so magick is out of her realm.

Within a few minutes of talking to her, I received another call from someone in a similar situation but with a few variations. First off, she lost her house she was buying when the housing boom went bust and she still had a job. She tried to modify her loan and got foreclosed on and I am pretty sure the thing she didn't say was that she stopped making payments because if she hadn't, why would she be in foreclosure. You also might want to know that as soon as they get Obama out, everything will be just fine. Can I please take her cats because the no kill shelters have the audasity to tell her they are all full?
A few more minutes of whining revealed that the extent of her rescue of these animals has been finding every county and private program available to pay her vet bills and neuter and spay them. She had a whole list of people who have been helping her that for some reason aren't answering the phone any more.

Then I started thinking. Here are two people in the same boat except one of them put herself there. She is complaining because the charities she depends on are overloaded. She still has a job. She screwed herself up trying to modify her loan. How, you ask? It is simple. I had it explained to me. Upon hearing that loan modification would be made available to people underwater on their homes, but with the caveat that you had to be at least 3 months in arrears on your mortgage, she stopped making payments so she could get into yet another freebie program, like the neuter/spay for the pets of the elderly and poor, and free food and free vet help for the out of work or underemployed. Now, she is facing being out on the street because she didn't meet the requirements and her hand is still out. How dare those filthy liberal scumbags actually catch people trying to defraud the program by taking a vacation from house payments they signed contracts to pay under that wonderful president Bush.

Meanwhile, both my other friend and I, have been donating to these programs when possible, using every spare cent to neuter and spay our animals and strays, buying our own food and over using our credit cards on vet bills, because we can and someone else might need that service that can't.The thought of stopping payment on a mortgage to get refinancing and lowered payments never crossed either of our minds nor would it. We still had jobs and it might mean peanut butter with no jelly, but we paid our bills and we took care of our animals and any others that crossed our paths.

This reminds me of another flaming Republican who parks his fat ass in the handicapped motorized shopping cart while complaining about the liberals who made it necessary to have handicapped access laws and are costing business too much with their unnecessary laws. Why just look at all the money spent on those handicapped parking spaces that his car is sitting in.... But hey, don't expect him to buy his own little cart or get out of that one, which he is mainly using because he is FAT. I'm FAT and hang onto the shopping cart to make it through the store, slowly, because my asthma keeps me from moving too fast. I figure if I can do it, there is someone worse off than me that needs that motorized cart and it sure isn't him. I even found teenagers in these carts until BJ's finally cracked down. They were too tired to walk while their parents shopped.

That reminds me of making into the Costco door and grabbing a cart to hang onto before I passed out because my asthma was really bad that day, some days I barely have a problem, and hearing two old geezers talking about how nice it was to have that little sticker so they didn't have to park too far away from the door. I know they were flaming Republicans because I saw the Bush stickers on their Mercedes, as they diddy bopped into Costco in their little sports shirts and shorts with the reptile on it from their tennis match. Yes, the rackets were in the back window. They have private doctors to give them the nicely signed papers in exchange for drinks and round of golf at the club. It's amazing how much better medical care you get with a country club membership. They take care of their own. If I had to chase a ball around with a stick to get better care, someone would have to die.

So what was the outcome of this afternoon? I did a quick spell and my friend called the next day to say that out of the blue a job actually found her and she was going to be alright. She might have a couple of days in the car and the roasting pan really does make a nice kitty pan that fits in the car floor. I learned that little tidbit from the "Cat who..." novels. That little spell will be our secret. The other two are still whining.

Over and over I find that the people complaining about the huge drain social services are putting on the economy are the very ones using them and they see absolutely no problem with it. Most of the time, they flat don't even need the services they are using but hey, if it's free, they are going to elbow someone who really needs them out of line to get them. Then they start talking about "welfare queens". Well, I have a new title for them: Republican welfare leeches. They leech services from the people who need them. For every mythical welfare queen, there are a hundred or more of them.

Don't believe me? Next time there is a health fair offering free testing, stand in the parking lot and take a look at the expensive cars parking and the welfare leeches heading in for medical care they can well afford. Next time there is free food being handed out, you'll find them at the head of the line. Free sample in the local mart, watch yourself or they will break your rib elbowing you out of the way for free cracker.   Free legal help, they are first in line. Free anything, they are there, complaining about the filthy liberal scumbags that are going to raise taxes and bankrupted the country paying for programs like these. They seem to have forgotten a couple of wars financed on a Chinese  credit card by Bush. They seem to have forgotten the housing bubble burst on his watch. They seem to have forgotten, TARP was the last act of HIS presidency. And they have really, because apparently they can't remember anything over 1 hour old, totally forgotten it was Reagan who raised the debt ceiling, deregulated the banks and monopolies and started this happy little downward slide down the side of the mountain in a handbasket. After all, it's all Obama's fault and as soon as we put the people back in charge from 4 years ago, everything will be wonderful.

By-the-way, my parting shot was that she should take a trip over to local Tea Bag representatives office and get some help there. I wonder how fast her ass hit the pavement over there.....