By: Guest ContributorNov. 12th, 2011more from Guest Contributor

On Real Time, host Bill Maher used Scrooge and A Christmas Carol to slam the GOP for both their hypocrisy about Christmas, and their economic policies.

Here is the video:

Episode 232 by BillMaher1956

Maher said,

Someone needs to explain to the Republicans that Ebenezer Scrooge is supposed to be the bad guy, and before conservatives start whining about another war on Christmas, they must admit they hate everything about Christmas, because brotherhood, goodwill toward men, and especially charity make their skin crawl. Now this week Michele Bachmann proposed cutting huge holes in the federal safety net, demonstrating a total misunderstanding of the concept of a net. Here’s what she said, ‘Self-reliance means if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.’ Merry Christmas to you too, crazy lady. Yeah, that’s the first thing I think when self-reliance comes up, punishment by starvation.

Honestly, who can hear that statement and not think of Scrooge? Who in A Christmas Carol suggested if the poor don’t want to go to workhouses, they should get on with dying as a service to population control. Now if Herman Cain said that at Republican debate, he would get a standing ovation. And say what you want about Ebenezer Scrooge, he never shoved Bob Cratchit’s head into his groin and said, ‘You want Christmas off or not?’ Newt Gingrich refers to Obama as the food stamp president, because he doesn’t want children to starve to death, f**king commie. Mitt Romney says we should let all the people about to lose their homes, lose them, and they can just become renters. Ownership society, meet no pets, no waterbeds. Mitt said the same thing a few years ago when the automobile industry was tottering. Let it die.

I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to every problem is do nothing. Their answer to wealth inequality, do nothing. Health care? Do nothing. Climate change? Nothing. Racism? Doesn’t exist. For a group of people so head over heels in love with self-reliance, they sure do recommend a lot of sitting on their ass.
If A Christmas Carol was performed by the Tea Party Dramatic Society, it would be a cautionary tale about how the hero, Scrooge, a blameless job creator is turned into a socialist through the corrupting influence of Tiny Tim. And the play would end with a simple plaintive question from Mr. Scrooge. Just how much of my wealth does Mr. Tim think he’s entitled to?

And that is the great Republican fallacy of this election, that our economic problems are due not to Wall Street’s gambling, but because too many Americans are lazy. But there are 16 million unemployed, and we only created 80,000 jobs last month. The problem isn’t laziness. It’s math. But this is where the Republican Party is now, in favor of people dying because they don’t have health insurance. In favor letting people go unfed if they won’t work, and if they want to work, but are Mexicans, in favor of putting up a fence that electrocutes them.

Even Scrooge is thinking, ‘Look, I hate the poor, but I’m not a f**king psychopath.’ But’s that’s where this party is, it simply has no bottom. Except Marcus Bachmann, he’s a bottom.

Maher is correct. Republicans hate any political policy that is designed to help the poor, but their solution is to do nothing to help them work their way out of poverty. Republicans blame Americans for their own poverty, while they reject any proposal that would create jobs. How many times have you heard Republicans explain away the unemployment problem by claiming that there are jobs out there, but the unemployed are too lazy to do them?

Really? There are jobs out there. Tell that to the seven applicants for every job opening. The problem isn’t that the unemployed are lazy, but that there is precious little work to be had. Our economic problems will not be solved with a change in “leadership” as Mitt Romney loves to suggest. There is a simple solution to our economic woes, jobs.

To the modern Republican Party, Scrooge is a hero. His exploitation of his employees, miserly ways, and greed are virtues worthy of praise. Scrooge before his transformation was an Ayn Rand dream.

Far right conservatives see themselves as the defenders of Christmas, but these same people forget the teachings of Christ that are the core of what we celebrate on December 25. They ignore compassion, empathy, and charity. In short, they, not the left, have managed to take the Christ out of Christmas.

If the Republican Party gets their way, Ebenezer Scrooge will replace the bald eagle as the symbol for what America has become.