Republican Anecdotal Conveniences:

[HughBeaumont]

* The Friend(s) from Canada that have been a) wronged by the Canadian health system or b) forced to come to America for "life-threatening" surgery to "avoid the long waiting lists".

* The Friend who Came to America from Europe/Cuba/Scandanavia/Canada to "escape (insert Repub boogeyman prefix here)ism".

* A Friend who's a Small Businessperson (makes over 250k a year, naturally) who will have to either close up shop or fire his workers because his taxes are going up 3.6 percent. Of course, they seem to omit the part about the first $250k still taxed at normal rates.

* One or two scandal-ridden Democratic politicians (For an extreme case, see: Cuyahoga County, Ohio) who at worst commit either perjury or white collar crime, while overlooking their own party's majority of lying, warmongering, laissez-failing, tax-wasting and thieving gems.

* A poor person or persons (usually, minorities) they've worked with once who "gamed the system".

* "Welfare queens" they've seen or heard of, but usually can't name (see above).

* Someone they know (or themselves) whose health insurance premiums are going up "because of Obamacare". You know, because those benevolent private insurance conglomerates are perfectly innocent of profiteering and only have your best interests in mind :eyes:

Any that I missed?

[el_bryanto]

1. The doctor who is retiring because Malpractice Insurance Premiums are too high

Bryant

[Erose999]

17. Yeah my friend whos dad is a doctor uses that one all the time.

Her dad is an orthopedic surgeon. Apparently he

1.) Doesn't take any patients who have a gov't payer (medicare, etc)
2.) Doesn't do neck and back surgeries because of the additional costs of malpractice insurance.

"Dad could be doing so much better if he didn't have to carry so much malpractice insurance. all those people trying to game the system...".

This girl is 28 and her parents have always payed her rent. She constantly rants about people "taking advantage of the system" and "Lazy bums", lol.

[LiberalFighter]

2. That appears to be the SOP of them.

[COLGATE4]

3. Welfare recipients who blow their welfare on drugs and booze

[Cosmocat]

6. This is the do all justification for it all ...

There is something under it with all of that I just don't get ...

I did social work for about 15 years, and I saw the subculture of people who are non-contributors and who game the system ... It exists, but the graft at the highest levels of government into corporations and rich individuals is 1000 times worst ... It is not even close, but they could give a rats tail about that, and obsess over the fringe elements ...

They wildly support a lunatic like Pat Toomey, who has helped enable trillions of dollars of corporate welfare, while listening to Rush Limbaugh and being apocolyptic about how government is ruining the country by "disincentivizing" people from wanting to work because of unemployment (which people actually pay into) or welfare in general ...

It just is mindboggling ...

[HughBeaumont]

7. I love how people think unemployment insurance is "system gaming".

WE pay into that when we WORK. This was set up so that Republican Joe wouldn't lose his house if the great Trickle Dunce economic system he says "yes" to year after year collapses. What part of this don't they get?

It's also hilarious when they overlook the fact that rich people are some of the biggest users of social and government-funded programs, many of whom owe their fortunes to such services.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. The family farm which will go out of business if billionaire estates are still taxed. n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

5. All the businesses that will close their doors if the minimum wage is raised. n/t

[izquierdista]

8. The girl they knew in college

Who had to have an abortion and she never recovered from the emotional scars and is now an infertile alcoholic.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Almost as fictional as their imaginary girlfriend from Nova Scotia.

:rofl:

[HughBeaumont]

10. Another -

* That mud-hovel, bug-eating, famine-plagued nation that "even the poorest Americans aren't even close to in terms of REAL poverty".

You know, as if that somehow means there's no REAL poverty in this country, that Poverty is now reduced to a one-downing, dick-swinging contest and excuses the continuous boot-on-the-face treatment America's poor gets from this Nation and the people that run it.

This canard is galling when Conservatives use it, but more infuriating when Democrats pull it out.

[gratuitous]

11. The guy or gal who hit the litigation jackpot

As we all know, there is a Slot Machine o' Justice in every courtroom in the land, and any plaintiff who gets to court is given one free pull. And every Republican is personally acquainted with someone (or their relative) who received a huge jury award for some minor injury that wasn't even the defendant's fault.

[HughBeaumont]

13. "The Stella Awards" come to mind.

Never mind the "Stella" case was completely legitimate and justified.

[blondeatlast]

14. Are there really "Stella Awards"? Vile. I don't think I want to know. nt

[HughBeaumont]

16. Mostly urban legend lawsuits dreamt up by tort-reform conservatives, thus the quotes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Award

The snopes-debunked stuff inspired this "completely independent" author to come up with REAL frivolous lawsuits - the TRUE Stella Awards.

http://www.stellaawards.com/

Seems to me these are the same guys who hate people like Elizabeth Warren and Consumer protection.

[blondeatlast]

18. God, how I pity that poor woman.

As a paralegal student, we spent two semesters prepping that case for a mock trial. Many students came into it mocking it; no one mocked it by the end, though.

[Scurrilous]

12. K & R

:thumbsup:

[blondeatlast]

15. The Hispanic Friend who supports the border wall and AZ SB 1070. nt

[ck4829]

19. Every Republican seems to own a small business and knows a doctor who is against HCR