Name: Anonymous 2007-12-09 16:30
I was reading a front page story on Daily Kos a little while ago, and ran into the following audio clip from a woman who is self-identified Republican. The quote is from an NPR report that was broadcast on December 4th (about 3:30 into the report):
“I make a great deal of money through my own hard work. I don’t want to pay for someone else’s child to eat breakfast at school anymore.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16869086
NPR’s Steve Inskeep identified the woman who spoke the words as Gretchen Kauffman, an “editor and a Republican”. Ms. Kauffman is definitely more than an “editor and a Republican”. She’s a former teacher, and the co-author of a critically acclaimed book, A Disgrace to the Profession, which was written with an anti-education slant.
Probably more important than the single quote above, though, is the overall context of the full interview. Ms. Kauffman is clearly a Norquist Republican - there’s nothing good that the government can do, and having the government spending a portion of her wealth on social programs for poor leeches is not on her radar screen. (But I’d be willing to bet that she supports dumping billions and billions into the Iraqi money pit.)
The callousness of her remarks on government subsidized school breakfast programs, though, is especially stunning. I didn’t know - I really didn’t know - that there were educated, allegedly compassionate people, who supported these viewpoints.
I could write more, but I think that Devilstower at Daily Kos sums up nicely:
"This is a democracy, and we are the government. I will take your money. I will. Some of that money you worked hard for and want to keep. I will give it to a kid who is hungry. If your concern is that poverty should be addressed by individuals, then there’s a simple solution: feed him. If there are no poor children needing food, I won’t have to take anything for them. If your position is that people would be more generous if only the government would stay out of it, then sorry. I’m not willing to put this child at risk to as part of your experiment. Besides, if that were true, then why were their more hungry kids before we started these programs to give them a little breakfast? If your position is that your being able to keep all your money is more important than a child being fed, then I simply think you’re wrong. And sick. You want to keep that money? You better beat me at the polls. The strategy of vultures gives us both a party and a nation that would embarrass John Kennedy…"
We’ve known since the time of Gingrich’s contract on America that the GOP is run largely by a leadership that, in simpler times, would have been indicted for grand theft. Ms. Kauffman is the personification of Republican values - a social viewpoint to which I (and most progressives) simply can’t subscribe.
“I make a great deal of money through my own hard work. I don’t want to pay for someone else’s child to eat breakfast at school anymore.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16869086
NPR’s Steve Inskeep identified the woman who spoke the words as Gretchen Kauffman, an “editor and a Republican”. Ms. Kauffman is definitely more than an “editor and a Republican”. She’s a former teacher, and the co-author of a critically acclaimed book, A Disgrace to the Profession, which was written with an anti-education slant.
Probably more important than the single quote above, though, is the overall context of the full interview. Ms. Kauffman is clearly a Norquist Republican - there’s nothing good that the government can do, and having the government spending a portion of her wealth on social programs for poor leeches is not on her radar screen. (But I’d be willing to bet that she supports dumping billions and billions into the Iraqi money pit.)
The callousness of her remarks on government subsidized school breakfast programs, though, is especially stunning. I didn’t know - I really didn’t know - that there were educated, allegedly compassionate people, who supported these viewpoints.
I could write more, but I think that Devilstower at Daily Kos sums up nicely:
"This is a democracy, and we are the government. I will take your money. I will. Some of that money you worked hard for and want to keep. I will give it to a kid who is hungry. If your concern is that poverty should be addressed by individuals, then there’s a simple solution: feed him. If there are no poor children needing food, I won’t have to take anything for them. If your position is that people would be more generous if only the government would stay out of it, then sorry. I’m not willing to put this child at risk to as part of your experiment. Besides, if that were true, then why were their more hungry kids before we started these programs to give them a little breakfast? If your position is that your being able to keep all your money is more important than a child being fed, then I simply think you’re wrong. And sick. You want to keep that money? You better beat me at the polls. The strategy of vultures gives us both a party and a nation that would embarrass John Kennedy…"
We’ve known since the time of Gingrich’s contract on America that the GOP is run largely by a leadership that, in simpler times, would have been indicted for grand theft. Ms. Kauffman is the personification of Republican values - a social viewpoint to which I (and most progressives) simply can’t subscribe.