from Consortium News:
Pity the Poor Tea Partier!By Robert Parry
April 12, 2011
Just think for a moment about the 55-year-old Tea Party activist who today is caught up in the excitement over Rep. Paul Ryan’s “bold” Republican budget. Picture the activist adjusting his tri-corner hat, waving his yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, and thrilled that finally someone is getting serious about dismantling the socialist tyranny of Medicare.Assuming the Tea Partier gets his way and sees Ryan’s budget enacted, it would certainly be one of the happiest days of his life, with “liberty” winning out over the hated “guv-mint.” Along with Ryan's $4 trillion in domestic spending cuts, the detested “Obamacare,” with all its red tape restricting the freedoms of the insurance companies, would be gone, too.
Then, let’s dial ahead a decade or so when the activist is reaching retirement age. Let’s assume he was lucky enough to have had a job that offered health insurance, which enabled him to handle his diabetes and to get his wife treated for her cancer.
But now he is heading off into the cherished “free market” with what amounts to an $8,000 government voucher to buy health insurance. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/041211.html