And they are right, for the memory of the public is so short, and the capacity for blame even when it remembers, so slight, that a Richard Nixon or the Gordon Liddy he employed can become heroes again in a lifetime. That is the world we should have. They will be taken care of by private charity. They will die. Mr. Gingrich's references to private charity number among the most dishonest things he has said.
Private charity sets up another prisoner's dilemma.
If you contribute and I do not, you pay for the burden alone. If neither of us contributes, someone dies. The federal government, by taxing us proportionally and funding welfare, enforces cooperation. The Contract Republicans are the party of defection and the sucker's payoff for he who cooperates. That the helpless will die is the most honest answer.