Russell Pearce, the recalled Arizona senate president, believes in birth control. That makes him an outlier in his own party.
Unfortunately, that still doesn’t mean he understands how choice works. The former senate president said that he could fix public assistance programs by fixing the women who receive aid through those programs. For those keeping count, that’s two right-wingers this month that have called for the sterilization of a certain population. Godwin’s law is moot now; these people are pulling stuff straight from the NSDAP playbook and aren’t even trying to hide it.
He also believes that requiring drug testing will fix the problem, since the return rates on that have been spectacular.
Pearce made the comments during his weekly talk radio program:
You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I’d do is get Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations. Then we’ll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job.
Good thing nobody’s advocating putting him in charge, then, isn’t it?
Rather than address the actual problem — income inequality, a lack of meaningful jobs in favor of part-time BS because our “job creators” don’t want to create jobs — he choose to immediately punish the women. That should tell you everything you need to know about this man.
He also suggested drastic cuts to food assistance for needy families, and urged strict limits on items that could be purchased with what little help was available, since while we’re at it, let’s punish the children too. It was their choice to be born into a poor family, after all.
No cash for Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, you’d only get money for 15-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and powdered milk – all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want a steak or frozen pizza, then you’d have to get a job.
Just one problem, smart guy: most people on government assistance already have jobs. In fact, Walmart and other corporations use public assistance to subsidize their low wages.
He suggested strict rules for anyone who received government housing assistance, too:
Ever live in a military barracks? You’ll maintain your property in a clean, good state of repair, and your home will be subjected to an inspection at any time, possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or an X-Box 360, then get a job.
Want public assistance, be prepared to move to North Korea. And I’m sure conservatives are a-okay with this comparison, since the goal is to punish people for failing. After all, everyone’s perfect. If you fail, it’s because God hates you.
However, despite his comically fascist policies, this wannabe Mussolini insists that he favors a “small-government” solution to poverty: that is, let the churches decide who lives or dies (since the return on that in the past has been spectacular, too).
“I know there’s people out there [who] need help, and my heart goes out to them, too,” he said. “But you know what? That should never be a government role. That’s a role for family, church, and community.”
I eagerly await the day one of these yahoos stops shooting off their mouth and realizes that corporations are doing the same thing they’re accusing the poor in this country of doing. What then? Oh, I know. Let’s give them just enough money so those corporations can only afford 15 pounds of rice and powdered milk, and then force them to get jobs.
When he’s not hosting his program, he helps to promote the Elderly Assistance Fund in his taxpayer-paid position in the Maricopa County treasurer’s office. He is paid $85,000 a year in that role, and he also draws a public pension from previous government work.
Hypocrisy? Only if you’re a Nazi-Commie-Leftist-Fascist Ivory Tower Pinko with a bleeding heart who likes to spend other people’s money instead of doing the right thing: Handing all your money over to the rich so they can shove in a tax free bank account somewhere in Barbados.
You can listen to his fascist drivel below:
h/t: Raw Story
