From a recent New York Times article, With No Jobs, Plenty of Time for Tea Party:
When Tom Grimes lost his job as a financial consultant 15 months ago, he called his congressman, a Democrat, for help getting government health care.
. . .
Mr. Grimes, who receives Social Security, has filled the back seat of his Mercury Grand Marquis with the literature of the movement, including Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots†and Frederic Bastiat’s “The Law,†which denounces public benefits as “false philanthropy.â€
“If you quit giving people that stuff, they would figure out how to do it on their own,†Mr. Grimes said.
Or this guy:
[Jeff McQueen] blames the government for his unemployment. “Government is absolutely responsible, not because of what they did recently with the car companies, but what they’ve done since the 1980s,†he said. “The government has allowed free trade and never set up any rules.â€
He and others do not see any contradictions in their arguments for smaller government even as they argue that it should do more to prevent job loss or cuts to Medicare.
This just makes my head hurt.