{"id":15823,"date":"2009-09-17T14:14:39","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T20:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15823"},"modified":"2009-09-17T14:14:47","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T20:14:47","slug":"they-just-really-dont-see-the-irony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/17\/they-just-really-dont-see-the-irony.html","title":{"rendered":"They just really don’t see the irony"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Tea Partiers are furious, furious <\/em>I tell you, about the intrusion of government into their lives … about the burden of government taxation … about boondoggle government spending. They wave “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and hold forth on Randian virtues of self-reliance and personal responsibility and survival of the fittest, rather than stealing money from the the pockets of honest, hard workers to pay for socialistic government so-called-services<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, about 70,000 of those Tea Partiers gathered up in Washington, DC, last weekend in order to protest bloated budgets and the Evils of Government Spending<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So it is with no small element of irony that they’re now bitching that they didn’t get adequate government services while they were there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Rep. Kevin Brady asked for an explanation of why the government-run subway system didn\u2019t, in his view, adequately prepare for this past weekend\u2019s rally to protest government spending and government services.<\/p>\n

[…] The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington\u2019s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,\u201d Brady wrote. \u201cThese participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation\u2019s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Brady says that \u201cthere weren\u2019t enough cars and there weren\u2019t enough trains.\u201d Brady tweeted<\/a> as much from the Saturday march. \u201cMETRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn\u2019t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,\u201d he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it \u201cappears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, you would think that all these bold, bright, brave, independent souls would welcome <\/em>the opportunity to thumb their noses on big government spending projects like the Washington Metro. You’d think they’d all supply their own transportation, without expecting a transit “hand-out.” You’d think they’d have worked together, like Texas frontiersmen of old, chartering their own private busses, or something similarly filled with libertarian virtue. You’d think they’d remember that government is the problem<\/em>, not the solution<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(You’d also expect that if they read that Metro service was increased during an anti-war <\/em>demonstration that they’d pitch a fit about taxpayer-subsidized protests. But I digress.)<\/p>\n

No, instead these “Transit Queens” are pitching a fit because a government service didn’t increase capacity to meet all their needs<\/em>. And they’re getting their government representative <\/em>to complain that the government, effectively, didn’t spend enough money to take care of them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just savor that for a moment.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it gets even zanier.  The Metro has suffered terribly from underfunding over the years (esp. since its budget is a weird three-way dance between DC (i.e., the federal government), Virginia, and Maryland. (And one might, of course, ask why the people of Virginia and Maryland should be obliged to pay for the additional transportation needs of tourists from southeast Texas, but I digress again.) Has Rep. Brady always been so gung-ho to “maintain this public transit system” so as to make sure it can provide service to his constituents should the come to visit him? It is to laugh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Back in July HR3288<\/a>, a Transportation and HUD appropriations bill, came up for a vote. It included $150 million for emergency maintenance funding for the DC Metro.
Brady voted against it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As did the entire Republican delegation from Texas.<\/p>\n

Be sure and mention that <\/em>to your outraged Tea Partiers, Rep. Brady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tea Partiers are furious, furious I tell you, about the intrusion of government into their lives … about the burden of government taxation … about boondoggle government spending. They wave “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and hold forth on Randian virtues of self-reliance and personal responsibility and survival of the fittest, rather than stealing money … Continue reading “They just really don’t see the irony”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24472,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/12\/not-that-i-ever-listen-to-anything-glenn-beck-says.html","url_meta":{"origin":15823,"position":0},"title":"Not that I ever listen to anything Glenn Beck says","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Dec-11 2:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But it's sometimes kind of interesting, as Beck claims (inexplicably) that Gingrich and Obama are both \"big government progressives\" (um, definitely not and sadly not) and therefore if the Tea Partiers are supporting Gingrich, it must be a racist thing on their part.Yeah, it's more than a bit goofy, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50138,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/23\/education-is-socialism.html","url_meta":{"origin":15823,"position":1},"title":"Education is Socialism!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Apr-15 5:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently Texas Tea Partiers are aghast that their Republican (!) governor is trying to spend more money on Pre-K educational opportunities and standards, since that's clearly An Attempt by Big Government to Steal Kids Away from Their Loving Stay-at-Home Home-Schooling Mothers, Just Like The Commies Do. 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Or the irony that the Limbaugh and Beck and the Tea-Partiers, in supporting the decision, are \"cutting their own throats,\" too, once the corporations decide that rabble-rousers on the Right are no longer good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26685,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/27\/its-all-fun-and-games-until-its-your-own-ox-being-gored.html","url_meta":{"origin":15823,"position":3},"title":"It's all fun and games until its your own ox being gored","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Feb-12 8:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"In the category of \"huge surprises that shouldn't be,\" big corporations that don't care about the environment don't care about private property (others', at least), either. #ddtb Embedded Link The Keystone Fight Is Uniting Tea Partiers With Environmentalists You\u2019ll never guess what\u2019s uniting Tea Partiers, Occupiers, libertarians, and environmentalists.","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16982,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/29\/unblogged-bits-for-mon-29-mar-2010-1020am.html","url_meta":{"origin":15823,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Mon, 29 Mar 2010, 10:20AM","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Mar-10 7:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... 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