Robert Reich: The Rise of the Wrecking-Ball Right

[tpsbmam]

Robert Reich has an interesting article out looking at "The Rise of the Wrecking-Ball Right." His focus is the government "haters," the right-wing determined to shrink government size at all cost, who blame all of the woes of the United States on big government and refuse to listen to facts and rationality.

So what the hell is with all of the people who support them? He feels Wall Street and the machinations of the world of finance are too abstract and complex for the average voter to really get. What has been true are fear and insecurities about the economy, and one of the things people could plainly see and grasp was the Wall Street bailout. He opines it's not a coincidence that the tea party gathered steam at the time of those bailouts.

Here's where it really got interesting for me:

At the same time most of what government does that helps average people is now so deeply woven into the thread of daily life that it's no longer recognizable as government. Think of the indignant voters who showed up at congressional town meetings to protest Obama's health care bill shouting "don't take away my Medicare!"

A recent paper by Cornell political scientist Suzanne Mettler surveyed how many recipients of government benefits don't really believe they have received any benefits. She found that over 44 percent of Social Security recipients say they "have not used a government social program." More than half of families receiving government-backed student loans said the same thing, as did 60 percent of those who get the home mortgage interest deduction, 43 percent of unemployment insurance beneficiaries, and almost 30 percent of recipients of Social Security Disability.

He notes that the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, is Obama and the Democrats have failing miserably when it comes to making the case for the need for government.

One would have thought the last few years of mine disasters, exploding oil rigs, nuclear meltdowns, malfeasance on Wall Street, wildly-escalating costs of health insurance, rip-roaring CEO pay, and mass layoffs would have offered a singular opportunity to explain why the nation's collective well-being requires a strong and effective government representing the interests of average people.

Yet the case has not been made. Perhaps that's because, even under the Democrats, the interests of average people have not been sufficiently attended to.

From Susan Metler's research (reproduced in a NY Times article)

Percentage of Program Beneficiaries Who Report They “Have Not Used a Government Social Program”
First the program they're using is listed and then the percentage of people using that program who say "no, have not used a government social program"

Government Social Program”
529 or Coverdell 64.3
Home Mortgage Interest Deduction 60.0
Hope or Lifetime Learning Tax Credit 59.6
Student Loans 53.3
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit 51.7
Earned Income Tax Credit 47.1
Social Security—Retirement & Survivors 44.1
Pell Grants 43.1
Unemployment Insurance 43.0
Veterans Benefits (other than G.I. Bill) 41.7
G.I. Bill 40.3
Medicare 39.8
Head Start 37.2
Social Security Disability 28.7
Supplemental Security Income 28.2
Medicaid 27.8
Welfare/Public Assistance 27.4
Government Subsidized Housing 27.4
Food Stamps 25.4
Source: Suzanne Mettler, “Reconstituting the Submerged State: The Challenge of Social Policy Reform in the Obama Era,” Perspectives on Politics (September 2010): 809.


You can read her paper at this link (PDF): http://government.arts.cornell.edu/assets/faculty/docs/mettler/submergedstat_mettler.pdf

[nashville_brook]

1. this needs a kick :)

[krispos42]

2. Here's the table in question