40 years after Archie Bunker, the Reagan Revolution, the Gingrich Revolution, welfare reform and the Bush/Cheney years, conservatives are still convinced that the real problem with this country is that the poor have it too damn easy. And as Ronald Reagan did with his "Cadillac-driving Welfare Queen" and "Strapping Young Bucks buying steaks" -- right-wingers are still lying to make their case.
Cavuto claims it's unfair that half the country pays no federal income taxes when Ronald Reagan signed the Earned Income Tax Credit into law. He also claims "half the country doesn't pay any taxes at all" -- and that's a lie.
Cavuto bemoans the loss of the US's triple-A credit rating, when it was the hostage-taking by Republicans that led to it.
Cavuto claims "90 percent" of Americans have health insurance. It's more like 80%. He claims "10 percent" of Americans don't have health insurance -- it's much closer to 20%. He also calls the US health system "the world's envy" -- even though Mitt Romney just admitted that we pay far too much for a system that produces mediocre results.
Cavuto says "you used to have to work for welfare, now you just take it" -- but the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act championed by Gingrich and signed into law by Clinton requires work and leaves welfare recipients to the tender mercies of the states. So the opposite is true.
Cavuto says he doesn't recognize the country, and on that score he's right. The gap between the very rich and everyone else has no precedent except for the 1920s. The number of union households in America is at an all-time low. Also at historic lows are taxes -- especially on the rich. And social mobility in the US has collapsed.
This segment is telling, however, because no matter how low taxes are, no matter how much wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, no matter how high corporate profits are, no matter how degraded the safety net is -- for right-wingers, the problem will always be that the "moochers" are dragging down the "producers."
Shorter Cavuto: Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
