people rationalize

david sirota highlights the results of a recent poll:

According to new data crunched by Cornell University's Suzanne Mettler, large numbers of Americans who receive benefits from government social programs nonetheless tell pollsters they "have not used a government social program." And when I mean large, I mean large. For example, a majority of those who have received federally subsidized student loans, 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries and 40 percent of G.I. bill recipients say they have not used a government social program.

These numbers go a long way to explaining why the economic debate in our country is so insane. Indeed, at a moment when taxes have hit a historic low, most politicians -- from presidents to governors to state legislators -- insist we must further cut taxes and shrink allegedly "Big Government." And they are finding a receptive audience in the general public because, as the numbers show, so many Americans wrongly believe they don't receive direct financial benefits from government.

i think this is the natural product of 30-40 years of GOP trashing of government programs. the welfare queen is thoroughly entrenched in our national conscience. on a gut level a lot of americans think that people who get government benefits are bad. that gut feeling persists even when they themselves receive government benefits. so to resolve their cognitive dissonance, they refuse to believe that the benefits they are getting are government benefits.

everyone knows that only bad people are on government assistance. i'm not a bad person, so i must not be getting anything from the goverment. QED

(via mustang bobby)