Friday, February 3, 2012

Republican Burris doubles down — put poor kids to work!

Posted by on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 1:04 PM

WORKFARE: Too many deadbeats arent working, John Burris suggests. We suggest he get a job.
  • WORKFARE: Too many deadbeats aren't working, John Burris suggests. We suggest he get a job.
Republican Rep. John Burris couldn't leave well enough alone. Already on record supporting a statement Mitt Romney has repudiated — about lack of concern for the very poor because of their luxurious "safety net" — he raised the ante when Talk Business asked him about it.

It's all about Medicaid with Burris. Too bad he doesn't understand much about the program for the very poorest Arkansans. Said he to Roby Brock:

We’ve got to change the way we do business in Arkansas. The real problem, the real solution to get people off Medicaid rolls is to give them a job, make them able to self-sustain themselves without government assistance.

Only a small percentage of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied people — about 5 percent, the Democratic Party says. The rest are nursing home residents, the disabled and children.

Newt Gingrich, you've met your soulmate. John Burris appears to say:

Kids, grab a mop. There are school toilets to be swabbed.

Disabled folks, mount your wheelchairs. Rep. Burris has work for you to do.

Granny and gramps, get somebody to lift you out of that nursing home bed and into a geri-chair. Maybe you can scrape plates in the cafeteria or something worthwhile.

Oh, and the rest of you in the 5 percent: I know, I know. Many of you actually ARE working. But your income is so low that you still qualify for Medicaid? How much sleep are you getting? Sleep less. Get another job, you sorry sonofabitchin' welfare fraud.

(LATE CLARIFICATION: Some people appear to have missed that I tried to signal that the passage immediately above was satirical exaggeration for effect. No, John Burris didn't utter those words, though those he did utter about curing Medicaid finances by putting those people to work were all too real.)

No kidding, Rep. Burris. Do you really have a clue about who gets government assistance and how much and in what form they receive it? And what their condition would be without the mite we supply them? This is the future of Arkansas and America if Burris becomes majority leader. Mark it down.

PS — How about John Burris get a job — besides sucking off the taxpayer teat at the Capitol?

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