Among the comments he got was this one:
"Mahatma Ghandi: 'A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.'"
That brought to mind the biblical passage in Matthew in which Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me."
Another commentor was thinking along the same lines. She wrote:
"For the religious politicians see Matthew 25:41-46: 'Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, ...I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'"
And that brought to mind the Congressional debt-ceiling impass in which, from what I understand, Republicans are resolute about not ending government subsidies to highly profitable oil companies which benefit their obscenely rich executives, yet are demanding cuts in government assistance to "the least" among us.
Charles Blow included this quote in his column:
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
One of his FB Friends observed. "...which is true, again, in like 10 different ways - literally, every thing costs more - interest is higher, offers for loans are worse and more costly and you money isn't at work on the stock market while you are at work making more - a hundred dollars for a poor person equals 10,000 in real life - and it REALLY does - it is EXTREMELY expensive to be poor - extremely. say it again and again - tell it over and over ..."
That's true not only for the individual who is poor, it is true for a nation that grows poverty, that increasingly widens the gap between its rich and poor citizens, that reduces the buying power of its middle- and low-income groups, which the U.S. is doing a lot of these days.
It costs our country far more in financial and human capital and in national potential to not take care of its poor than it would if we did.
That just makes good truly conservative sense.
"For the religious politicians see Matthew 25:41-46: 'Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, ...I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'"
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