The GOP Hates the Social Safety Net, But Their Voters Need It
In singling out federal programs for the deepest cuts during the haggling over raising the debt ceiling, the GOP is tapping into the myth that those who rely on public assistance are undeserving and can’t be trusted to responsibly receive government benefits.
It goes back to President Ronald Reagan’s elevating and exaggerating an anecdotal “welfare queen” who drew checks from multiple agencies and spent the money on luxury food and drink. Democrats recoiled from the characterization, rightly so, this was belittling lower income people, who were the Democrats’ base.
What’s different today is that a lot more of the people depending on government assistance vote Republican. They work low-income jobs, and they’re the ones who will be hurt by the deal the GOP wants. “You can’t have the kind of cuts the Republicans are talking about without hurting people, and a lot of those people are going to be Republicans,” says Jack Pitney, Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College.