The GOP - hating on the poor.

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: The Grinch-OP got a wonderful, awful idea! Edition (Click on this heading to view more)

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner)

Sunday, December 22, 2013, 7:23 am

The Spirit of the Season

 

Timothy Egan turns a light on the poor and how we see them. ...didn’t the poor deserve their fate? Didn’t they make bad decisions? Weren’t some of them just moochers? And lazy? Well, yes, in many cases, my mother said, lighting one of her L&M cigarettes, which she bought by the carton at the Indian reservation. But neither rich nor poor had the moral high ground.

As the year ends, this argument is playing out in two of the most meanspirited actions left on the table by the least-productive Congress in modern history. The House, refuge of the shrunken-heart caucus, has passed a measure to eliminate food aid for four million Americans, starting next year. Many who would remain on the old food stamp program may have to pass a drug test to get their groceries. At the same time, Congress has let unemployment benefits expire for 1.3 million people, beginning just a few days after Christmas.

These actions have nothing to do with bringing federal spending into line, and everything to do with a view that poor people are morally inferior. Here’s a sample of this line of thought:

"The explosion of food stamps in this country is not just a fiscal issue for me," said Representative Steve Southerland, Republican from Florida, chief crusader for cutting assistance to the poor. "This is a defining moral issue of our time."

It would be a "disservice" to further extend unemployment assistance to those who’ve been out of work for some time, said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. It encourages them to sit at home and do nothing.

"People who are perfectly capable of working are buying things like beer," said Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, on those getting food assistance in his state.