Because the speech was so breathtaking, we begin with the actual words Gov. Chris Christie used Tuesday during his audition for a spot on Mitt Romney's ticket:

"I’ve never seen a less optimistic time in my lifetime in this country. And people wonder why. I think it’s really simple: It’s because government’s now telling them to stop dreaming, stop striving, we’ll take care of you. We’re turning into a paternalistic entitlement society. That will not just bankrupt us financially; it will bankrupt us morally.

"When the American people no longer believe that this is a place where only their willingness to work hard and to act with honor and integrity and ingenuity determines their success in life, then we’ll have a bunch of people sitting on a couch waiting for their next government check."

Get that, America? It’s not the millions of jobs that have disappeared. It’s not the millions of families who have lost their homes. And it’s not the fact that middle-class incomes have been steadily shrinking, while those at the top have taken virtually all the benefits of the last decade’s economic growth.

The real problem is you. You have lost your fire. You are lazy. You lack integrity. You’re just sitting on the couch, waiting for that fat government check.

Where do they get this stuff? Has Christie seen the long lines that form whenever a business announces job openings? Has he seen the army of unemployed people turned away from job training centers because of budget cuts?

Does he realize the welfare wars from the 1990s are over, that his team won and that the rolls have shrunk to historic lows?

You almost want to challenge him to produce one of these couch potatoes who are ruining the country. Each one could be matched by a middle-class parent who just lost a job through no fault of his or her own. And we’ll see who runs out first.

Kathleen DiChiara has been running the Community FoodBank of New Jersey for 37 years. What she sees is not a country of louts, but one with lots of decent people who are down on their luck.

"I was at our pantry in Atlantic City and I saw this well-dressed man on line," she said. "He sold furniture by commission, and when the casinos started laying off people, he lost a lot. He said he was losing his house. He had three kids. This was a man who had worked all his life. He said, ‘I just can’t go home tonight without food for the kids. If you want me to kneel down, I will. I’ll do anything to not have to go home and let my kids be hungry again.’

"He had tears in his eyes. These people don’t feel entitled. They feel embarrassed to be asking for help."

It is bad enough that economic royalists such as Christie are pushing for tax cuts that are heavily tilted toward the rich. Do we really have to hear his morally superior lecture on top of that?

The answer is yes. Because to justify shrinking government as much as Republicans want and to justify big tax cuts at the same time, you have to build a story that turns government into the enemy. So programs that provide help are turned into demons that corrupt our collective spirit.

Without a doubt, there are louts out there. That probably helps explain some of the sharp increases in disability benefits in the Social Security program. But Republicans use this narrative to attack college scholarships, job-training programs, even visits to the doctor.

Christie, despite his pledge on taxes, has actually increased taxes on the working poor by shrinking the earned income tax credit. Does a parent unlucky enough to be raising a family on minimum wage really need the governor’s condescending kick in the pants?

The response to this nonsense was sustained applause from the audience stacked overwhelmingly with white men in expensive suits. Karl Rove was there, as was Henry Kissinger and the former President George W. Bush, the grandmaster of tax cuts that don’t work.

Christie has his eye on the White House, and to win over this crowd, he may have to spew this kind of nonsense. Let’s just hope he doesn’t really believe it.

Related coverage:

• Gov. Christie: Nation turning into 'people sitting on a couch waiting for their next government check'

• Poll: Gov. Christie is more popular than ever before

• Gov. Christie says U.S. entitlement programs could 'eat the rest of the budget alive'