The competition for who is the stupidest member of Congress is a pretty fierce race, but clearly, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert is trying like hell to place first:
GOHMERT: If you look at the debt ceiling bill like I did, not many others apparently did, it increased the amount of Pell Grants from $3 billion to $13 billion. My kids, my youngest just graduated from college, and we had to do student loans because I've been in government service and that's— I didn't want them to have to worry about it. We still owe them those. It would benefit me greatly.
But that is not a stimulus, what the president's talking about, in forgiving the student loans. That is a stimulus of his voters to come out a year from now and vote for him. That's all it is. It's buying votes with federal money that we don't have. We'll have to borrow 42 cents of every dollar that he uses to buy students' votes so they'll come out again for him as they did in 2008, hoping that buying those votes they'll come back in 2012.
Okay, first off, raise your hand if you're sick of hearing members of Congress complain about how hard it is for them to get by on their $174,000 a year salaries, while at the same time accusing the 50 percent of wage earners who made only $26,400 last year of not paying their fair share in taxes, of whining as they seek government handouts, of waging class war, and of lying about their economic struggles if they happen to own such luxury items as refrigerators.
But pissing on the poor while whining about their own meager six-figure salaries is nothing new for Republicans. Accusing President Obama of "buying votes" with student loan assistance? That may be a new twist. Is this really such a smart strategy?
Gosh, kids, we'd love to help you out with your college education, but if you get any help—the same help we ourselves have sought for our own children—you might vote for Obama. And we can't have that. Oh no. So, screw you.
Okay, so maybe this isn't a new strategy. It's just standard operating procedure for Republicans: Government aid is good for me, but not for thee.
