Give me a fucking break! (speaking to right-wingers, not folks on DU!)
So, the right's latest outrage du jour is the $300 million aid package the President has committed to the City of Detroit. Tonight, a crazy, right-wing sister of mine shared an 'infographic' (if you can call it that) from Freedomworks, calling that aid package a 'bailout' and whining about "our hard-earned tax dollars going to bail out union fatcats." So here is the status update I posted in response:
(I will make every effort to be as temperate as I possibly can be i writing this post. But I guarantee nothing.)
Today I saw yet another example of one of the right's endless litany of 'outrages' by President Obama. There is an info[sic]graphic from Freedomworks circulating Facebook that oh-so-self-righteously fulminates against what it calls a "bailout" of Detroit. Here is the accompanying text:
"The Obama Administration has announced it will bail out Detroit with $300 million of YOUR tax dollars.
'Share' if you don't want your hard earned money to be spent bailing out union fat cats! Send a message demanding your Congressional Representatives stop the bailout:"
First, it is an aid package, not a bailout. Detroit's debts total sum $18 billion dollars, so $300 million can hardly be considered a bailout.
Second, approximately $150,000 of it is earmarked to help THE REPUBLICAN-APPOINTED EMERGENCY CITY MANAGER to cover the costs of razing blighted buildings. The remainder is going towards helping to beef up the decimated police and fire departments. These are all necessary preconditions for any redevelopment by PRIVATE DEVELOPERS.
Third, $300M is a little over .008% -- that's EIGHT THOUSANDTHS OF ONE PERCENT -- of the Federal government's total outlays for 2012 (approx. $3.5 trillion). It is approximately $1 for every man, woman and child currently living in the U.S.l Telll you what, conservatives: if that $1 for each member of your household is really of that much concern to you, call me up and I'll give you the damn dollar!
Whatever may be said of the causes of Detroit's bankruptcy (and they were significantly more complex and manifold than mere unions), the fact remains that Detroit is still a city of some 700,000 people, the vast majority of whom had little or no say in the decisions made by their leaders over the years, and a large percentage of whom simply do not have the means to pull up stakes and move elsewhere.
This may come as a shock to conservatives, but the fact is we ALL pay taxes for things we don't like. (God knows many of us had to sit by and watch helplessly as untolled trillions were poured into two pointless wars that were launched by one of your own, chiefly at the behest of conservatives with a financial stake in defense contracting industries.) You are not, contrary to your self-anointed 'victim' status, uniquely put upon. Your tax rates are at something like a 70-year low, and tax rates in the United States are among the lowest in the developed world, so, with all due respect, conservatives, grow the fuck up already!
= new reply since forum marked as read
...the "your outrage" was a generic address to people who click on and like those sorts of things, not to you.
I was adding an additional factor that can be included when responding to things like these. It was not a criticism of you, and if it came across that way I offer my apologies.
K&R. 
You see, I need to confess something . . .
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
I committed the most grievous sin of trolling Freedomworks FB page by posting a version of my little screed above to it. Terrible of me, I know, but I could think of no group more deserving of a little left-wing trolling than Freedomworks!
Now how many Hail Marys and Our Fathers am I supposed to say?
