Les Beastiables ("Les Bez"): Beasties say the darnedest things!
Today's Beastiable is Rick Perrycupine. He recently attended the Koch summit and criticized his fellow Republicans, which can be great sport. Nevertheless, I thought both his attendance and what he said was beastly enough that he has earned his turn as one of Les Beastiables.
NOTE FOR NEW READERS: This series features a new Les Beastiables cartoon every Wednesday about 1:30-2:00 PM Eastern. We indulge in a little Franglish because the French are tres classy. But I digresse.
For serious source information, please join me below the orange squirming of beasties on the hot seat. Then you'll be able to "cleanse your palate" with a cute photo before you leave.
On Saturday, August 22, 2015, several Republicans-who-would-be-President were in Ohio for the annual meeting of "Americans for Prosperity" (slogan: "Prosperity for Me, Not for Thee"; alternative slogan: "Misers and Avarice: As American as Baseball and Apple Pie"). Those of you in the know recognize this group as being one of those founded by unethical oil-and-gas filthy-rich brothers Charles and David Koch, owners of Koch Industries (slogan: "Choke on our Paper Products, you Plebes"; alternative slogan: "If President Grover Cleveland Robbed the Indians, We Can Rob the Indians"; alternative alternative slogan: "Petcoke is a Nutrient!"). Speaker-Sycophants included Jeb Bushbaby, Bobby Jackal, Ted Cruzmel, Rick Perrycupine, and Marco Rubioceros. At this meeting, according to Bloomberg Politics:
In an impassioned speech, Perry said that while he won't "trade freedom for federal money,'' other governors have accepted Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul to bring federal dollars back to their states despite the national debt. Chris Christie of New Jersey and John Kasich of Ohio have accepted the expansion, but Perry's most obvious target was Kasich.
"The idea that Washington has this federal pot of Ohio Medicaid money that would have gone to some other state is just nonsense,'' Perry said. "That money doesn’t come from an endless vault of money in Washington. It is borrowed from bankers in China and children in Cleveland and Columbus.''
How pure of him not to accept federal money even for a compassionate goal like healthcare for the poor. Except, of course, that he did accept federal money.
According to The National Priorities Project:
Based on the most recently available data, Texas receives about $238 billion dollars from our federal budget over the course of a year, between federal grants and contracts to business and governments, federal assistance going right to its residents, and federal employees working there. Because the most recent data represent different time periods, we have combined data across different years to create this current best estimate.
Click on their Web site above to see all the details. When you look at their graphs and charts, keep in mind that Mr. Perry was
Governor of Texas from 2001 through 2014. Granted, Texas takes fewer federal dollars than most states. They may very well explain why their citizens are poorer than most states. But Governor Perry did not reject all federal aid. Meanwhile, the citizens of Texas paid about $220 billion in federal taxes per year, with or without the Medicaid expansion.
You may wonder if all that aid is to individuals, thus something the Governor has no control over. Nope. In fact, he took plenty of money from an Obama program that he supposedly hates: Texas received over 17 billion dollars' worth from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, much of which went for education, infrastructure, transportation, science research and development, and energy projects.
Now I'm not saying he shouldn't take that money. Of course he should. I'm saying refusing to take Medicaid expansion money is simply posturing for political purposes on the backs of the sick, disabled, and poor. When it came to accepting or rejecting money for government and business, he made all the same arguments against it but took the money anyway:
Back to the stimulus: On Feb. 18, 2009, the same day Perry accepted the federal funds, the governor slammed the legislation as being "full of pork and special interest handouts." On his campaign website, Perry wrote: "The Democrats think this bill will change our country's financial fortunes, but you and I know better. … This administration is saddling future generations with an increasingly unbearable debt." He then urged readers to sign an online petition telling "Washington" that they are "fed up with bailouts."
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Perry also wrote that he opposed using "these funds to expand existing government programs" because the state would be burdened "with ongoing expenditures long after the funding has dried up."
His stance is that federal taxes need to be cut, and I would disagree, but it's a nonissue because the Governor has no control over that. If the state of Texas wants lower federal taxes, they need to send people to Congress to work for that (and in many cases, they have). Until then, that $220 billion in taxes that the citizens of his state send to the federal government every year is not going to magically return to Texas. If he was able to work out a deal where in exchange for refusing federal money, residents of the state of Texas paid no federal taxes, that might be defensible, although Texas would still lose since they receive more than they send. But it would provide the state with more money to pay for Medicaid themselves. But there has been no quid pro quo arranged by any governor. The state has rejected money for Medicaid expansion, but state residents' federal taxes have not decreased one penny. It makes no mathematical sense.
Every single year of his governorship, he failed to reject, on average, about $238 billion dollars. The only federal aid he is on record as rejecting was what would provide healthcare to the poor. Funny how when Republicans stand for principles, their stance coincidentally hurts the poor. But that's not humorous.
Please join me in my mission to expose the stupid and ugly in our public figures. We will never forget. But we will have some laughs along the way. You may find other sayings by the same public figures equally as bad or worse compared to the beastly sayings I've chosen. In other words, your cringeage may vary. Please discuss.
As promised, just for fun is a photo of a porcupine baby, I assume with its Mom. They're really pretty cute!
Please consider this an open thread. Feel free to comment below on this or other topics and post your own links.
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