Ah, here it is. The Republican Party during Obama's Presidency: [link]

The difference is that Reagan's dog whistle of welfare queens was racist. It's easy to turn this into an attack on the working class red staters and hold up a mirror to them. "Yo, Mitt Monocle McTaxcheater is talking about YOU."

I think the notion that there are those people on food stamps (because they're lazy), which is totally different from my family being on food stamps (because Obama is bad for the economy), is too ingrained for this to have much traction.

It's the same line of thinking that allows pro-life women to justify their own abortions - yes, I'm having this procedure done, but I'm not like those sluts who want to let everyone do it.

I think the notion that there are those people on food stamps (because they're lazy), which is totally different from my family being on food stamps (because Obama is bad for the economy), is too ingrained for this to have much traction.

I know we say don't read the comments, but the vitriol I have seen in articles about Mitt Romney's statement- not directed toward Mitt, but toward this mythical people who are living off our hardwork and buying chips and soda with their EBT benefits cards. The person I know in 'real life' who feels like this really does have a hard life and refuses to take any help, and I think she channels her anger from that into the anger against these mythical people.

What is sort of weird (although anecdata) is that when my mother worked as a case worker/benefit examiner for medicaid for seniors, she had a lot more problems with wealthy people gaming the system and hiding assets so that they did not lose their inheritance by paying for their aging parents to be put in a nursing home.

Oh, and I just read a note from a "conservative" who explained the 12 cookies joke (A CEO, a Tea Party Member and a Union Worker are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO takes 11, and says to the Tea Party Member-- "Watch out, that Union Guy wants to take your cookie!") this way-- The CEO only takes 11 cookies because he produced the cookies, and therefore should have most of the cookies.

when my mother worked as a case worker/benefit examiner for medicaid for seniors, she had a lot more problems with wealthy people gaming the system and hiding assets so that they did not lose their inheritance by paying for their aging parents to be put in a nursing home.

Yeah, my granddad, while not really wealthy, did a bit of this. When Grandma's dementia got so bad that she had to go to a home, granddad put his land (MI Upper Peninsula woods) into my dad's name so Granddad wouldn't have to sell it to pay for Grandma's care. Dad got to pay all the property taxes, but Granddad kept on selling the timber and keeping the money. Which, theoretically, Dad could have stopped with legal action, but it was his father. So that never happened.

I'm assuming this map of people who don't pay income tax, by state, is true: [link]

granddad put his land

I think she would have considered this "wealthy". Interesting fact- Caseworkers are paid next to nothing. On her salary, as a single mom, she would have qualified for benefits but was to embarrassed because the people she would have applied with were her coworkers- they were just all married and their husbands had better jobs.

Yeah, I realize this is self-serving, but I think gaming the Medicaid system to some extent is fine. My parents put their house just in my mother's name years ago on the assumption that my father might need to get Medicaid at some point, and if it was still in both of their names, they'd have to sell it before he qualified. But my mother still needs to live somewhere!

The amount of money that can be saved by "gaming" the welfare system (food stamps, unemployment, Medicare) is nothing compared to the amount of money corporations save in taxes by hiring people like my dad. But apparently trying to save money on health care to pay bills means you're lazy and trying to save money on taxes because you're rich enough to hire a lawyer means you're resourceful.

Well, and people would not have to "game" the system at all if we had a universal safety net for eldercare/healthcare!

ETA: I have to confess that my mother HATES what she considers rich people, and her definition of rich people includes some middle class people. She tends to think they are all cheats, much like the Romneyans think the 47% are cheats. She STILL is mad at my friend who, when we were 10 years old, who accepted the 2 dollars my mother gave her so we could go around to some local garage sales when her father had already given her spending money!