From Thursday’s Boston Globe — the Shirk family, no kidding – their real name, Tea Party family of 12, and we pay for their health insurance:
They were enraged about the growing costs of entitlements, the surging national debt, and everything from the bailouts of the banks to the new health care law.
Early yesterday morning, Valerie and Rob Shirk corralled their 10 home-schooled children into their van for the 2 1/2-hour drive from their home in Connecticut to Boston, arriving just in time to hear Sarah Palin denounce government-run health care at the tea party movement rally on Boston Common.
They thought it would be a learning opportunity for their children, who range in age from 9 months to 15 years old and who held up signs criticizing the government for defying the “will of the people.”
“The problem in this country is that too many people are looking for handouts,” said Valerie Shirk, 43, of Prospect, Conn. “I agree with the signs that say, `Share my father’s work ethic – not his paycheck.’ We have to do something about the whole welfare mentality in this country.”
The Shirks were among the thousands of people who attended the rally from around the region, many of them carrying signs with slogans such as, “What Part of Live Free or Die Don’t You Understand?,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” and “Starve the Beast by Tax Cuts.”
. . .
For the Shirks, it was a day for their children to seek inspiration from Palin and the other speakers, who questioned Obama’s patriotism and at least one of whom referred to him repeatedly as Barack Hussein.
The couple, who rely on Medicaid for their health care, were also upset about the nation’s new health reforms.
When asked why her family used state-subsidized health care when she criticized people who take handouts, Valerie Shirk said she did not want to stop having children, and that her husband’s income was not enough to cover the family with private insurance.
“I know there’s a dichotomy because of what we get from the state,” she said. “But I just look at each of my children as a blessing.”
What do you want to bet that in addition to Medicaid and the tax deduction, they’ve got other deductions such that they pay $0.00 in federal income taxes?
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p>It’s so lovely that someone who would deny coverage to hard-working Americans has no problem asking the taxpayers to subsidize their own reproduction.
Earned Income Credit there is too. So why don’t these people know that it would be the Republicans and some of those Tea Partiers that would be the first to take that government help away from them, and are there fighting to do just that. It’s really sad.
I saw a clip from a gathering featuring Grover Norquist wherein a GOP Congressman said that it was not true that 95% of working people received a tax cut. Someone is telling them the exact opposite and that is whom they choose to believe.
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p>Sen. Fritz Hollings once told of someone who after reading a litany of all the things in their lives come from government, wrote to President Reagan asking him to get the government off his back.
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p>Nice to see some tape of some of non-radical (at least I think so) tea partiers.
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p>I wish we had gotten ahold of Kathy D’Angelo before Lori Schill did. Although I think Kathy could still be persuaded, and perhaps Lori too. Lori states she was an independent and is now a Republican. Probably because of all of the Repubs who have stepped up to usurp and mislead these people. I know without question there is no way a Democratic official could attend one of these events without trying to speak over the BOOS. That’s why we have to address these people one person at a time.
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p>The Snow-Brine family. Here’s hoping that sign is just snark. AVERAGE – RACIST – RIGHTWING – TEABAGGER – FAMILY.
I would love to ask them why they are racists, or how they benefit from being racists. I wonder what they think racism is. It’s hard to beleive there are still racists in today’s world.
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p>I am certain I’ve played cribbage with someone like George Amerault. Next time I do I’ll be sure to talk about how corporatist Republicans would rather take away his rights as a worker and keep him in low wages so that his employer can realize more profits and the CEO’s can earn more millions in bonuses. I’ll also mention in passing how GWB’s tax cuts for the wealthy resulted in higher state and local taxes for the working/middle class.
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p>Very interesting post and video. Thanks for sharing Yellowdogdem.
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That type really makes me sick, my sister just had to decrease her hours to get on medicare to avoid paying the fines under Romneycare, and she is someone from MA who would see improved health-care under Obamacare. What worries me most though is that there was a time when taxes were viewed as a patriotic duty and anyone opposed to paying them was branded a traitor, when looking out for your fellow man was a bipartisan trait, and when the community came before the needs of the individual. How these tea party types can demand government services for themselves and deny it to others is beyond the pale of hypocrisy, especially when half of them are either calling them ‘christians’ or making it really obvious that they just don’t want to see browner people than them get the same benefits they do. How can we ask men and women to serve their country, put the other before the self, if we are creating a national narrative of selfishness? These people don’t oppose socialism, they oppose socialism for anyone who isn’t exactly like they are, and there is nothing conservative or libertarian about that-its naked populism at its worst.