"[T]he richest people took more candy than anyone else"

[starroute]

5. Well, they have a sense of entitlement

I suspect this is the real reason the Republicans are trying to make "entitlement" a dirty word.

It's not just a convenient way to undermine Social Security and Medicare -- programs to which the recipients are genuinely entitled. It also serves to displace the other meaning of "entitled" -- that belief among the wealthy that they have a right to grab off anything they can get their hands on -- and attach it to so-called "greedy" seniors instead.

This not only smears the genuinely needy and deserving but deprives us of the ability to clearly label the actual abuses of the wealthy. Two birds with one stone.