Rongagin71 said:
I give my own money to charities and the poor.
I do not use the government to force other people to do the same.
Sounds good to me, better than forcing people to pay high taxes
to support all sorts of schemes that involve political payoffs.
This is always such a convenient excuse for letting people starve. "I do good things so this problem is solved!"
Good for you for being charitable. I do as well. That doesn't magically make all of society's problems go away.
I always chuckle when I hear pro lifers say stuff like this. The same people who say it will always, 10 times out of 10, vote down any law that would even marginally help poor people, and the excuse is always the same. Some variation of "muh taxes, muh freedom." And usually these same people had a lot of things handed to them in their youth but pulled the ladder up behind them once they got older.
The unborn are such a convenient group to advocate for. They ask for nothing in return. But once they're born, anything they ask for is an entitlement, a handout. Even the very reasonable ask of, say, funding low income public schools and free school lunches. These are NOT extreme positions to take. But the right has become so insanely greedy and selfish that they frame it that way. Cutting taxes for millionaires to let them buy their next boat or vacation home is freedom, but taking just a fraction of our defense budget and using it to fund a social good like free school lunches is evil socialism.
We're such a twisted, backwards country. I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that so many conservative Christians tell me that people deserve to die for not being able to afford medical care and then look me in the eye and tell me we live in the greatest country in the history of the world.