Mix Your Religion and Politics with Love and not Hate

There has been circulating on the internet as of late a letter about a health care rip off reported by a Dr. Ciancio that he sent to Rush Limbaugh. Following is that letter:

Dear Mr. Limbaugh,

I was speaking to an emergency room physician this morning. He told me that a woman in her 20's came to the ER with her 8th pregnancy. She stated "my momma told me that I am the breadwinner for the family." He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies and babies get money for the family. The scam goes like this: The grandma calls the Department of Children and Family Services and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for these children. DCFS agrees and states that the child or children will need to go to foster care. The grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and thus receives a check for $1500 per child per month in Illinois. Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free, not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid) plus a monthly "Link" card entitling her to free groceries, etc, and a voucher for 250 free cell phone minutes per month. This does not even include WIC and other welfare programs. Indeed, grandma was correct in that her fertile daughter is the "breadwinner" in the family.

I hope you share this story with your listeners so that they know how the ruling class spends their tax dollars.

Also, many thanks for the fine service you provide in educating people about the merits of conservative thinking.

Cheers,

Sebastian J. Ciancio, M.D.
Urologist, Danville Polyclinic, LTD.

It is one of those letters that intended to fire up our righteous indignation as the good tax paying responsible people of this country who are being ripped off by the lazy unproductive members of 

our society. And it works pretty effectively with many of us.

I believe it bears closer scrutiny. It is a rip off? Obviously. Does it cost tax payers money? 

Certainly. Should it be stopped? Absolutely.

Now, imagine you are that are that 20’s young woman who has been told and believes she is the breadwinner of the family. Or imagine you are a grandmother taking care of those babies. Or imagine you are one of those children being raised in such a household.

I’m not sure we can have much empathy for any of those folks because most of us haven’t been raised that way, and we have other opportunities and abilities and know to make a living. Even given the choice of being a party of this rip-off, I don’t think any of us would choose it.

Furthermore, Dr. Ciancio does have offer any solution to this rip-off, scam or problem in our society. All it seems he wants is to have Rush Limbaugh to continue to do what he does well; fan the flames on hatred and condemnation that has become so commonplace in our society.

Should we address this problem by eradicating all social programs that help the needy in our society? Are we to punish the unwed daughters without education and incomes to provide for their families? Should we put in jail grandmothers and mothers who perpetuate such

schemes because they’ve learned they work? Should we lower the number of government workers who have the responsibilities of finding these scans and work to stop them?

We used to call this type of argumentation, “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” Baby is dirty, you wash it but when you’re done washing  you throw it (the baby) out with the rest of the dirty water. Not effective.

Sesastionalizing these malfunctions of the government in antidotal cases such as these also lead us away from the big picture. The real scams that take place by banks the make irresponsible loans, then take out insurance betting that folk will not be able to make their payments and then reaped huge problems and the expense and heartbreak of many. Or the continuing tax incentives for large corporations based upon a now well known false presumption of the trickle down theory (supply side economics). It didn’t work when the Reagan administration began to promote it with huge tax breaks for the wealthy and it doesn’t work now. What it has done is drive up the national debt to remarkable proportions. Just read the numbers.

Senator McCain during his presidential run and loved and still loves to talk about “pork spending”, wasteful spending of the government. But when you put that spending in perspective, odious as it is, it is a pittance compared to the waste and support of the ultra wealthy in this country. To use another metaphor it’s like the person driving their Hummer to the grocery store and feeling righteous for using clipped coupons to buy their groceries.

I would also like for you to pay attention to the comments PK made on my blog spot entitled, What are we talking about if anything. The anger and hate mongering promoting by either of the radical right or left is toxic. It warps our thinking and drives us back to our reptilian minds of flight or fight. It is a time we need to use our higher brain functions to talk reasonably and openly to seek common ground for the common good.

This is the morality I learn from by religious beliefs and is the morality of most religious teachings despite the rantings of the radicals in those fields as well.

Think baby think! I believe God placed us in this world for the purpose of having and nurturing relationships. First we are to love God who created this world of abundance and told us to share it with each other and then to care for our brothers and sisters as he has cared for us by showing love for them. Remember those core ethics as we debate our national and international political issues.

May God truly bless America.