June 9, 2011--Hannity's Question. My Answer

I know I shouldn't do this to myself, but I did. I tuned into the Sean Hannity Show on Fox News. I like to keep up with conspiracy theorists.

After the usual ranting about Obama, he posed, for him, a fair question--

He asked, "What has the government ever done for you?"

I immediately began to make a list:

At its top--the government, through the Constitution and Bill of Rights, unlike in most other countries, allows, actually protects someone like him from suppression so he can have his TV show, say whatever he likes no matter how silly or seditious, and all the while make tens-of-millions a year. And on those millions, the government he despises enacted tax laws that allow him to keep almost all of it through a low marginal rate of only 35 percent for millionaires and various loopholes that were also governmentally legislated and signed into law by both Republican and Democrat presidents, including the current occupant of the White House.

Also, the government runs the world's best military. As well he should, service-dodger Hannity never misses an opportunity to praise our brave troops; but he fails to note that soldiers are in fact government workers. Federal employees whose job it is to keep us safe.

And then there are the government paid for police and firefighters who are ready 24/7 to respond to Hannity's 911 calls.

Also, without federally-guaranteed student loans, many of his listeners' children would not be able to pay their college tuition. Tuition, incidentally, to mainly public (i.e., government-run) colleges where the vast majority of college students are enrolled.

The government takes at least decent care of all our veterans, including still many thousands from the Greatest Generation who fought fascism, under the government's direction, during the Second World War.

The government also gave us the National Park system, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Glacier, and dozens of others.

And the government, without firing a shot, more than doubled the size of the United States when it in 1803 it purchased the more than 825,000 square-mile Louisiana Territory from France; and in 1867 bought the nearly 600,000 square-mile Alaska Territory from Russia, both for literally pennies an acre.

The government-run Coast Guard keeps our ocean borders secure and the government operated TSA, far from perfect, has managed to prevent another 9/11. Even FEMA under Barack Obama is doing a decent job in the tornado-ravaged mid-West.

The FDA, with the "F" standing for "Federal," does a rather good job of testing potential prescription drugs to assure that they will perform as intended; while another of the FDA's responsibilities is to monitor the safety of our food supply. I assume that when Hannity sits down to dine he wants his steaks to be free of e coli, and when he doses up on his meds he wants to feel that he will not experience any unexpected side effects.

Then there are the government-administered Medicare and Social Security programs. I know Hannity with his millions doesn't need either of these, but I suspect his parents do and like them very much. Even at Tea-Party-disrupted town hall meetings, when Democratic members of Congress were verbally assaulted for spending too much taxpayer money and were thereby leading the country down the path to socialism, these same folks demanded that Congress keep its hands off "my Medicare." In other words, don't interfere with my socialized health care, which is in fact what Medicare is.

I could go on. But you get my point.