Scott Walker and the Hammock Theory of Poverty

Washington Post ^ | February 3, 2015 | Greg Sargent - Plum Line

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"The Des Moines Register reports on a conference call that Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor who is all but certain to run for president, held with Republican activists in Iowa. The call contains some preliminary hints as to how the debate over what the GOP economic agenda should look like might unfold during the GOP primaries — which, in turn, could have ramifications for the 2016 general elections....

....If Walker agrees with the harsher Ryan formulation — one that holds overtones of Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” sneer — it suggests a direction that the arguments in the GOP primary might end up taking.

Right now, the Republican presidential candidates are all signaling that they will place the need to address inequality and poverty at the center of their campaigns. Marco Rubio’s new book attempts to speak directly to people’s economic struggles, and Jeb Bush has been making nice noises about how the economy has been disproportionately good to those at the top."....

[RatRipper]

McCain and Romney campaigned like introverted funeral directors and it did not work. Voters have endured a belly full of lies followed by the consequences of having been duped repeatedly. Speak plain truth and voters will respond.

[zerosix]

Unfortunately, the Bush's, having always been at the top, feel guilty about it and thus desire to "give to those" at the bottom. The only problem with that is, they don't give away their own money, they give away the money those at the working end have earned!!!

That's why it's so hard for the really elite to be President or leader of much of anything, they've never actually had to work at a real living, therefore have no understanding how much those who have always had to work for their income have had to struggle to get what they have.

Then to ask those same people to either work harder or live on less because the government is giving their money away to people who won't work to support themselves, is the cruelest cut of all.

No more Bush's, no Romney's, no millionaires - period!

[spintreebob]

SSI and Medicaid are 2 big ropes at one end of the hammock. Ag, Environment and a multitude of ropes at the other end of the hammock are the true welfare queens.

47% of SSI is addiction and made-up phobia mental health disabilities. They have to stop. Pragmatically, Medicaid won’t be cut off. States need more freedom to redesign it and experiment without being penalized. Maybe some state will discover a way to get it down. I’m for cutting it off totally and immediately. But that is not going to happen so we have to design something that can happen, given my views are in the minority.

[Kenny]

Wow, the Post is in all-out-get-Walker mode.