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Minnesota State Representative Mary Franson, currently rolling out the welcome mat for the climate-change denialist liars of the Heartland Institute and their spokesguy plagiarist Ben “Box Turtle” Domenech, turns out not to be so welcoming to those who get government assistance instead of wingnut welfare:
On Planet Franson, it’s okay to feed the legislators, but not poor people. Via the Minnesota GOP House Caucus Youtube channel, Franson delivers this charming message, beginning at 1:50 in the Youtube below:
Last week, we worked on some welfare reform bills.
And here, it’s kind of ironic, I’ll read you this little funny clipped that we got from a friend. It says, ‘Isn’t it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever.
Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.
Our reform bills are meant to bring people up out of the clutches of poverty. We want to provide a safety net, no longer a safety hammock. In one of the bills Representative Kurt Daudt authored would reduce the amount of time that you could stay on welfare from five years to three years.
In three years I believe that we can get Minnesota’s poorest of the poor back up on their feet and moving more toward a prosperous future.
Never mind that the Park Service is part of the Department of the Interior, or that similar statements in other places have earned scorn for those politicians, like former South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who equate poor people to animals. Franson says her script with complete confidence, because all the poorest of the poor need is a deadline and a lifetime, three-year limit on family assistance to get out of that hammock
The YouTube in question is at the top of this post.
Later, Franson did a non-apology “apology” that may even be more crass than her original YouTube statement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Minnesota’s Republican state legislature.
UPDATE: The Sauk Center Herald, which styles itself as “The Paper from America’s Original Main Street” — those of you who know the works of a certain American writer who died in self-imposed exile in Rome will catch the reference — weighs in and gives Franson a dressing-down.
19 Comments
You get what you vote for.
Sorry for my cynicism.
So far, in less than a week republicans have told us that single parents (read Moms) are child abusers, women who don’t want to get pregnant are sluts and now this. I am sure that I have missed a few equally egregious but less newsworthy comments.
Notably we hear nothing about deadbeat Dads or the men who like to screw women who don’t want to get pregnant.
The only surprise in all this is that anyone is surprised. Right wingnuts have been saying these things for years. Perhaps not as brazenly as now but they certainly have not gone out of their way to keep these views a secret.
I have never seen any sort of polls that suggest that these are majority views yet these people continue to get elected and in sufficient numbers to hold legislative majorities in historically blue states.
Cognitive dissonance has become the national pass time.
Well, human beings are animals, some of whom are rational. It is because humans are animals that they need to eat from time to time. When social circumstances are such that some of these human animals cannot provide for themselves, a civil society takes it upon itself to provide those human animals with food, shelter, clothing, medical care, etc. The United States, sadly, is seeking to become an uncivil society. Church Lady Franson appears to be one of the irrational animals who want to create an uncivil society in America.
I’m glad to see that Mary Franson’s salary is being well-spent on class warfare and mascara.
It gets worse:
http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2012/03/feeding-the-meme-mary-franson-box-turtle-ben-and-the-politics-of-post-moronic-mean.html
This woman is Weapons Grade Stupid and Weapons Grade Hateful.
I sincerely hope that someday soon she finds herself in need of food stamps, not her family….just her.
Asshole.
I give these legislators and especially their speech writers the benefit of doubt: they probably have the onset of brain tumors deriving from Monsanto and Aspartame.
Ah yes, the dema-fit of the bout, AitchD.
;~DW
The GOP’s likely nominee for the open Senate seat in Nebraska compared welfare recipients
to raccoons.
Is this personage one of the state Rethugs that accepted salaries during the recent government shutdown?
I hope for her sake that she’s also not doing an ‘Amy Koch’. (See Petard)
http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2012/03/heartless-in-the-heartland-representative-mary-franson-compares-feeding-food-stamp-recipients-to-fee.html
“Franson wasn’t capable of making this distinction, insteading chosing to roll into a program to limit time on “welfare.” One wonders if this three-year limit includes food stamps, since it’s a separate program from TANF-based “welfare.”
Todd County, in Franson’s district, has one of the highest levels of poverty in the state: 16.9% in 2010, according to the USDA. The poverty rate for children ages 0-7 is 25.3%.”
And,
Andre Bauer:
“”My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer said during a town hall meeting, as the Greenville News reported over the weekend. “You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”"
Now here’s the catch, … they’re correct.
Bet you didn’t see that coming.
But they are. They’re both saying the same thing without saying the complete truth. And they are correct.
It’s true. “They” do breed. Poor people breed. I’ve seen it. The greatest factor for being poor, … is, … surprise surprise, being offspring of those who are poor. Since “poor people” are a problem them for, not poverty, and they’re honest enough these days to come out and say it, then their statements are correct. They don’t like poor people. Surprise, surprise. They’re even so honest now days, they will come out and say it. They will also be honest and say they don’t care about poor people. Even when they’re Christian. They are honest enough to say it.
It’s also true, that you are facilitating the “problem”, ie. poor people, by giving them food. It’s true. It’s honest. If you didn’t give them food, they would probably die. That’s also true. Thus not giving them food, would 1. “take care” of the “problem”, ie. poor people, and 2. since the “problem”, ie. poor people are “taken care of”, ie. dead (no food = dead), then breeding becomes a non-issue. Double benefit. See how honest they are? They’re being very honest. And it’s all true.
They even say, honestly, that they want to curtail this “problem”. They don’t think poverty is a behavior. They really mean that mooching of the government/taxpayer is the problem. Because all those surpluses (BTW, the surpluses were “generated” by delaying the payments for a few year, ie. accounting gimmicks that would make Goldman Sachs proud, … they haven’t generated shite, it’s only an accounting gimmick) should be given as tax breaks to billion-dollar corporations and not to poor people who are starving.
Now that’s honesty. “Poor people” are the problem. Honesty. They want to “take care” of the “problem”. And what they suggest will actually “take care” of the “problem”. And it will. Stop giving welfare to poor people, so that corporations can pay less taxes and even receive billions of taxpayer money, and thus poor people will probably die. If they’re dead, they ain’t breeding. And magically (waves a magic wand), “the problem” has been “taken care of”.
In fact the numbers of “poor people” will decline. 1. they’re no longer on welfare so no one tracks them. 2. they will die. Both together will significantly “take care” of the “problem”. If the poverty rate is 16.9% and for 0-7 age group is 25.3%, then by instituting these “solutions” would decrease the poverty rate for adults, mostly because they won’t be counted (it takes a while for adults to die, simply because they have some means to scavenge and survive even on the streets) but they too would eventually die (the survival rate on the streets ain’t very good, … figure it out). It would also decrease the poverty rates for children even more and for this group most of that decrease will be death. Children have a very low survival rate on the streets. Very very low.
So although I might find it inhuman behavior bordering on the actions of demons, I must admit it’s all true. They’re being honest. Not fully honest, but filling in the rest is simple. Cut welfare, people will die. The “problem” will be “taken care of”.
Yeah, not her family, just her. I actually feel sorry for those 3 little children in the picture on her desk, having to grow up under the tutelage of such a harpy of hate.
Hey Pheonix
Here is a question for ya. Since it is easy to point out the evils of the Republican Party in Minnesot-ah.
What are your thoughts of Democratic Party Governor Dayton who ran on the issue of taxing the 2%? Who is now supporting the Viking Stadium which will profit wealthy 1% owner Ziggy Wilf. Paid for by we tax payers. Which is being done even though 70% of the people of Minnesot-ah oppose it? Worse yet where they are all actually breaking the law, since the law states that they cannot do it with out a referendum passed by the people to allow it.
Or- if you like where Minnesot-ah Senator John Marty tried to push his Minnesot-ah Single Payer Healthcare Bill. Which was blocked by those evil Republicans. With the assistance of the (gasp) Democratic Party leadership?
Right here in Minnesot-ah. There is a reason that progressives are leaving the Minnesot-ah Democratic Party in droves.
Any thoughts on that Pheonix?
In other words folks
Part of the reason that the Republicans have been able to get away with the rotten evil crap that they do is because of the open complicity or craven cowardice of most (not all, just most) Democratic Party elected officials.
” Stop giving welfare to poor people, so that corporations can pay less taxes and even receive billions of taxpayer money, and thus poor people will probably die.”
Actually, large numbers would likely end up in jail, preferring some sort of theft to death. This helps divert large sums of taxpayer money to the private prison industry which is far more economical than simply feeding them
Well here in MN there a lots of deer feeding programs in the winter.
So, when things are tough and the animals can’t fend for themselves they do get assistance.
Yeah, that’s what’s infuriating. Dayton’s been doing some pretty decent, liberal things — then he goes and supports the Viking Stadium. Yay 1%!
This is why I’ve left the Democratic Party to go Green, or Socialist, or Justice. At the very least it may convince the Democrats to move back left. As if that’s still possible.
The thing is that Dayton, like so many other civic leaders, has fallen for the “your city will be a Cold Omaha” if you let your sports teams leave. It’s blackmail, simple as that. What’s ironic is that while sports teams use these threats as a routine part of every major negotiation they do, the woof-to-action ratio is minimal, as a recent Nation article pointed out.
Right now, my main concern is keeping Dayton from wasting money on the “Personal Rapid Transit” boondoggle that both Michele Bachmann and Dean Zimmermann keep pushing. The billions spent on that will make the money wasted on a Vikings complex look like chump change.