I really am at a loss for words on this one. OK, a little background. One of my very best friends, who I went to college with and have remained friends with to this day, has apparently just "discovered" his right-wing sympathies. Now, let's just say that he has never been the deepest of thinkers, but all through college, he and I agreed on most things including political beliefs. The topic never came up much, as he preferred to spend most of his time thinking about beer and football and rock music and not much else (as did I, except for the fact that I was much more politically aware, being a Political Science major). I never thought less of him for NOT being politically aware; he was just one of those guys that didn't really care about that stuff. However, when the stray topic would come up, he and I generally agreed.
Well, fast forward to today. His father owned and operated a gravel pit in a small town. So guess who Daddy chose to run the gravel pit when he decided to retire a few years ago. So now that he's up in the office wearing a suit, my friend has apparently forgotten all about the days when he was working as a grunt on the floor of a steel mill, and now he's 100% anti-Union and Pro-right-wing. He's even taken to adding his comments to the articles I post on my Facebook page, despite the fact that he's severely outgunned when it comes to debates due to the fact that he's, at best, only semi-informed on any given topic (he generally just repeats what he's heard other people talking about).
So while I didn't find it all that surprising that he decided to chime in after I posted a link to the article from a few days ago stating that the Republican spending cuts would cost the economy over 700,000 jobs (this one:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gop-spending-plan-would-cost-700000-jobs-new-report-says/2011/02/28/ABBK9oJ_story.html ), I was simply taken aback with the logic he used to justify supporting the Republicans. When I posted the article, I made the following comment: "Hey, Boner, when you said you and your Republican cronies would make jobs your primary focus, I think we all just assumed you meant CREATING them."
This was his dizzying response: "Most of those jobs that are being cut are regulatory in nature, which strain small to medium sized businesses. Getting rid of those jobs will create more jobs through the spirit of entrepreneurship. Private enterprise will be paying for these jobs not the government and our tax dollars by the way."
WHAT???
Now remember, this is a close friend, so I spared him from the full wrath of me bringing the hammer down. Here's how I responded to that: "And you reached this conclusion...........how??? The article doesn't say that. None of the economists (one of which is our good friends over at Goldman Sachs) make that assertion. Even the Republicans don't claim that. The loss of jobs comes from SLOWER economic growth ACROSS THE BOARD (the article DOES say that--methinks somebody didn't do his homework). Creating jobs by losing jobs: that's something only a Republican could say with a straight face. That makes ALMOST as much sense as the Laffer Curve."
Believe me, I wanted to say a WHOLE lot more. Creating jobs by losing jobs. Does the crap right-wingers say even make sense to THEMSELVES?