This man's voters can't possibly be as dumb and cruel as he is. (Can they?)
by digby
I'm not sure what this Republican congressman thinks poor people "look like", but apparently they aren't allowed to be physically fit. I have no idea why:
“The food programs are designed to take care of people who can’t work, not won’t work. And we all know those people that won’t work, right?” he asked the audience. “They’re abusing the program, and we’ve got to get them off of it.”
Mullin knows for a fact that food stamps are abused, because he saw them being used by people who did not fit his idea of what poor people are supposed to look like:
So I’m in Crystal City and I’m buying my groceries…and I noticed everybody was giving that card. They had these huge baskets, and I realized it was the first of the month. But then I’m looking over, and there’s a couple beside me. This guy was built like a brick house. I mean he had muscles all over him. He was in a little tank top and pair of shorts and really nice Nike shoes. And she was standing there, and she was all in shape and she looked like she had just come from a fitness program. She was in the spandex, and you know, they were both physically fit. And they go up in front of me and they pay with that card. Fraud. Absolute 100% all it is is fraud…it’s all over the place. And there you go, to the fact that we shouldn’t be supporting those who won’t work. They’re spending their money someplace.
This kind of judgment is so common among lucky people with everything that it makes you wish you could force them to go without work for a few months and run through their savings just to see how much they like it. We've only had catastrophically high unemployment now for five years. Not that he wants to do anything about it.
The irony is that if these people were fat he'd be complaining that we're giving them too much food. Apparently, they need to look like Holocaust victims before they qualify. And even then, maybe not. Obviously, skinny people aren't working hard enough or they'd have some muscles to show for it, amirite?
This attitude just makes me livid. How in the hell does someone this ignorant and selfish get elected to anything. Wait, don't answer that ...
Oh, and his contention that food stamp programs are rife with fraud is utter BS. Of course.
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