Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.). Image: Wiki Commons
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Joe Manchin is now infamously quoted as saying he "Does not want to see us becoming an 'Entitlement Society.'" Too late Joe, we're already there and have been for many decades.
Joe Manchin is now infamously quoted as saying he “Does not want to see us becoming an ‘Entitlement Society.'”
Too late Joe, we’re already there and have been for many decades. You think people getting more of the Social Security or MediCare benefits that they paid for themselves is an entitlement? Obviously you’ve been getting your definitions from the Mitch McConnell dictionary for attention-shifting politicians.
Here’s an entitlement that we definitely can do away with. The US government has subsidized coal, oil, and gas for decades, despite the fact that a majority of voters want to end fossil fuel subsidies. Currently, experts estimate that direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry total around $20 billion every year, $15 billion of that from the federal government.That’s about $6 million per day, FOR DECADES.
These companies obviously feel entitled to this money. They pay lobbyists and politicians like you a ton of that money to make sure it keeps rolling.
But this ignores the basic fact that it’s not your money. It is ours. We pay our taxes—you know, those things that your big donors avoid—and the money somehow becomes “government funds” which are then spent on line items like $2 billion dollar bombers and $20 billion per year to shore up dying industries like coal and oil.
But then you and your buddy McConnell have the audacity to try to pawn off on us the idea that we have our hand out and why should anyone need the government’s help?
If you find an edge of contempt in my words, you’ve only gotten a tiny fraction of what is there. You were elected to do a job. You are there in Congress to do that job. You took an oath to do so. Get to it and knock off this bullshit of feathering your nest at our expense and calling it something else.
Marty Kassowitz
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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