GOP: Poor People Aren't Real Americans

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Another piece in the Daily Beast caught my eye because it sums up the agenda of today's Republican party and its war on the poor - even as GOP elected officials such as Paul Ryan disingenuously claim to honor and live by "Christian values."  They hypocrisy of such individuals and the party as a whole is breath taking.  And at the state level, things are no better.  Here in Virginia, Virginia Republicans are threatening a state government shut down rather than accept federal money and provided health care access to roughly 400,000 working class Virginians.  Apparently, these cretins and hypocrites have forgotten that the GOP forced federal shutdown did not exactly turn out well for the GOP.  In any event, here are article highlights:

It’s not about the budget, and it has nothing to do with concern about drugs—it’s about harassing a particular class of Americans who need help.

Looks like its time for another season of America’s favorite political sport: demonizing folks on welfare. 

Last month, the RNC announced that welfare would be one of the top issues they want to hammer home in the 2014 midterms. And on the local level, this isn’t just bumper-sticker campaign slogans, its being put into place as policy.

Here’s the deal: Beginning July 1 in Mississippi, anyone applying for welfare will be subjected to a questionnaire asking whether they use drugs. If their answers reveal possible drug use, they will have to pee in the cup. If they fail, they will have to undergo treatment in order to get paid.

Mississippi’s bill was signed into law after a federal judge in Florida ruled the state's drug testing plan for welfare recipients was unconstitutional. But that hasn't stopped other Republican lawmakers for going the tried and true route of demonizing those on welfare. It’s as if no other class of people in America does drugs.

The Michigan Senate passed a bill similar to Mississippi: if you are deemed suspicious of drug use, you must take the test. If you refuse, no assistance.

[I]n America, there is no greater political sport than to demonize those on welfare.

Politicians, largely Republicans, are good at playing up the class warfare by castigating the poor as being the reason why everything is bad in America. . . . .  Because it is easier to beat up on the helpless. And that's what such bills are about.