Orwell's Tea Party Pigs

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
OPINION, OCTOBER 9, 2013

For House 'pigs,' all's well that ends Orwell 

 By KEVIN MCKINNEY

 THEY ARE the worst kind of bad guys. Worse than knife-wielding street thugs or gun-toting gangsters.

 They dress up in their dandy monkey suits and assume a self-aggrandizing arrogance, as if they were mythical heroes, fighting for justice.

 They make phony, empty speeches, posing for the public, pretending that they give a rat's tail about us, the people.

 But really, they are the pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm - standing upright on two legs, dressed like humans and sipping tea with the enemy.

 Whether or not they ever possessed a righteous bone in their body, the truth is plain: House tea party Republicans, consumed by fear and corrupted by power, answer only to an influential select few. That's why they so easily can shut down a government, leaving some 800,000 federal workers without pay, risk crippling our economy further and give America's faltering reputation as the world's leading democracy another black eye.

 If the unprecedentedly obstructionist and politically opportunistic tea partyers are so sure that ObamaCare is a disaster, why not sign off on it and virtually guarantee a grand tea party in the White House come 2016?

 Wouldn't a meltdown of the Affordable Care Act effectively trash Democrats' and the president's credibility, bolstering Republicans' chances in the next congressional and presidential elections?

 Sure, like Animal Farm's pigs, tea partyers like to proclaim that "all (Americans) are equal." But the House hogs, a la Farm's pigs, time and time again since 2010 have demonstrated their true sentiments: Some citizens are "more equal than others."

 Of course, that "equality" is gauged by the size of a person's bank account, on- or offshore.

 The disparity between this country's rich and poor has never been greater.

 An estimated 13 percent of our children are living in poverty today. Millions go to bed hungry each night. And what's Republicans' sole obsession?

To reel in the Wall Street recklessness or reinforce lax financial regulation - the key failures that led to the Great Recession of 2008?

 Nah. No, Republicans, tea partyers in particular, are chomping at the bit to cut $40 billion from the food-stamp program over the next decade.

 Do social-welfare assistance programs need belt-tightening to weed out abusers? Certainly.

 But maybe we should make it a priority to close the loopholes that directly caused the economic crisis five years ago before we risk literally stealing more food from the mouths of babes.

 This talk of ObamaCare as a job killer is nonsense. Small businesses are hiring steadily. Under the new health-care plan, only 3 percent of small businesses (with 50 employees or more) are mandated to insure their workers. And some 96 percent of those businesses already provide health care.

 The alarmist, Republican-propagated remarks about ObamaCare's impact on Medicare and Medicaid have been refuted by analysts. Those programs will only be improved and expanded under the act.

 Emboldened by the suspect redistricting in the South that nearly guarantees that numerous Republicans will get re-elected in 2014, the tea partyers on Capitol Hill open their mouths only to oppose, disparage and destroy.

 Where are the conservatives' fixes or alternatives to the much maligned ObamaCare? Actually, considering the landslide of lies that the tea party has propagated about ObamaCare, it's impressive that a polled citizenry still slightly favors the new health-care law.

 So, it only stands to reason that the tea-party-controlled House, in reality, is terrified that ObamaCare - which surely won't be without its share of red-tape glitches, initially - will actually end up as one of this country's greatest achievements for the people.

 The only card that the House has left to play is to block a budget debt-ceiling plan. Then amid any resulting chaos, they can childishly point a finger at the president and insist: "He did it!"

 And they are betting, just like the pigs in Orwell's Farm, that the masses will be effectively brainwashed by such garbage.

We should take a lesson from the old, hardworking cart horse named Boxer in Animal Farm. He wasn't easily swayed by the pigs' empty assurances and twisting of the animals' democratic commandments - to benefit the pigs only.

Boxer asked questions; he sought the truth. Orwell indeed was a prophet. But what good has it done us?

Now, amid this partial government shutdown, heading for worse times, will the people finally see the House tea partyers for the pigs that they truly are? _________________
 Kevin McKinney is a freelance writer living at the Jersey Shore.

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