Octo-Mom becomes a symbol of taxpayer outrage

By Rick Morris

The woman who spawned the question "Is that your reproductive system or is that a clown car?" is becoming a giant magnet for taxpayer outrage in this circling-the-drain economy. The picture of her ginormous bare prego belly in TMZ is fueling the backlash, as is her oblivious denial that she has put her family on welfare.

I understand the gut feeling that people have about this woman's irresponsible decision to bring 14 children into the world with only the barest sense of "somebody else will help me to manage." Really I do. But I do have some issues with the selective sense of outrage that I see bubbling around this issue.

First of all, the people who have been stressed the most by this situation are Nadya Suleman's parents and it's THEIR house that's being picketed by people. That's not cool. We don't shoot hostages in America and posing an additional disruption outside the house of these people is uncalled for under the circumstances. The decision to bring eight more babies into the household surely wasn't their choice!

Also, I couldn't help but notice an article (which regrettably, I cannot find anymore) that showed a gentleman with a Hispanic surname protesting outside the house. I found that very interesting. I cannot help but wonder if this man is consistent in his opposition to manipulation of welfare services.

Polls always show that Hispanics, by a wide margin, feel that any legislation aimed at halting illegal immigration is racist against all Hispanics. I completely disagree with this sentiment. Among many other things, illegal aliens strain the social safety net, especially in places like California where the clueless and gutless politicians can't keep from overspending on those who actually PAY taxes. Moreover (not to condone racist thoughts, but just to acknowledge reality and explain what fuels the ignorant minds who practice racism), any discrimination still aimed at Hispanics would clearly recede if illegal aliens were a smaller part of the fabric of our society.

I do understand people's tendency to focus on the micro level of one Jolie-wannabe in California instead of the macro level of societal manipulation of the social services system -- although my mind happens to work backwards on that. I can say that although I have been forcefully opposed to our government's toleration of illegal immigration for a long, long time, I do feel more sympathy on a human level since driving past some of the "day labor" sites populated by illegals in the Atlanta area. While I feel that our government has a solemn duty to protect our soveriegnty and the sanctity of our borders -- and while I also am aware that MS-13 thugs and other criminals are also flooding across in large numbers -- I cannot feel anything but sympathy for those who left their Third World rathole in search of a better life. Not that I would allow them free access, because our laws cannot afford to be treated like toilet paper after a bender at Taco Bell, but I refuse to demonize any hard-working, well-meaning people on a human level.

So in my estimation, rather than turning our collective wrath on any single individual who is working our welfare system -- in a manner that my paleocon mind would say inevitably stems from the moral hazard of said programs -- we would better served to go after the worthless politicians who allow for such manipulation in the first place. Voting out of office any pathetic jerk who won't support proper border security for fear of being labeled a racist would be a good first step.