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MAGA Enthusiasts Sponging Off the Government While Pretending to Hate Government [1]
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Date: 2025-01-23
The ways in which older, more financially secure conservatives declare their dislike of government are manifold. They proudly declare their independence from government while reaping major government benefits.
A common refrain is that the government never did anything for them while they paid a fortune in taxes.
One huge, often unacknowledged benefit is Medicare. Medical insurance is very expensive and especially so as you get older. Medicare covers about 67 million people in the US with 90% over age 65. USAFACTS.org says the government spends $848 billion per year or about $16,000 per Medicare enrollee.
But as with all medical insurance, this cost rises fast as the person ages. A seventy-year-old might be getting a $25,000 benefit (what it would cost for private medical insurance) and an 80-year-old might get a $35,000 benefit per year.
But talk to most conservative 70-year-olds and they will tell you the government never did anything for them. If you tell them they are receiving an annual $25,000 benefit, my experience is they will grow quiet and then quickly forget what you told them. They simply cannot acknowledge their dependence (a common feature of conservatives who say “those people” are the sponges and not us).
The more reality-based people might declare angrily that they “paid for that” and try to shut down the unpleasant topic.
But Medicare is a Democratic program passed by President Lyndon Johnson that is liberal to the core. It is a form of the dreaded “socialism” that one should avoid like the plague. Participating in such a program would be shameful for many. Social Security presents a similar situation. Republicans would never consider creating such a program but without exception, they all participate in it. But unpleasant facts are still facts.
Education presents another way conservatives benefit from government.
I knew a wealthy doctor who insisted he was fully responsible for his financial and career success. When he was in college, most state colleges were subsidized by 35-40% with largely state tax money. State medical colleges and pharmacy schools (he got a degree in both) were also highly subsidized since many states needed doctors and pharmacists. His tuition was very low by today's standards and government-backed loans and grant were plentiful.
He also went into the Navy for 4 years as a physician. Currently the Military College Loan Repayment Programs are quite generous as far as forgiving loans, and I believe he went into the Navy to receive similar benefits.
But he insisted on his independence from government – a common right-wing fantasy.
Since these same conservatives want low taxes, state governments have reduced their contributions to state colleges to an average of about 7%. For instance, NEA.org reports that in Louisiana, higher-ed funding declined $5,500 per student between 2008 and 2020. PEW reports that state funding per student for higher education decreased from $7,000 to $4,400 from 2000 to 2012 but the trend has been downward for the last 50 years.
So, these comfortable older people who received highly subsidized educations do not want young people to receive the same benefits and care little if they graduate with a load of debt while paying 7% interest. And Congress in its wisdom has even declared that student debt cannot be canceled by bankruptcy (which virtually every other form of debt can).
For many conservatives, sponging off the government is like the hidden intellectually disabled brother living in the attic who must never be acknowledged.
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