As our very own Governor Scott Walker likes to say: “We’re Broke and Can’t Negotiate” and as the right wing likes to say we need to get people off welfare:
People from both political parties have long recognized that welfare without work creates negative incentives that lead to permanent poverty. It robs people of self-esteem.
– Mitt Romney
And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse — the kind that wrecked ancient Rome and every other civilization that allowed a sociopolitical monster called the welfare state to exist.”
– Barry Goldwater
While the Reagan “welfare queen in a Cadillac” at the time was just another one of the fables that Ronnie liked to tell, we finally found one this week. Her name is General Electric and she drives around more than a Caddy.
As was reported this week, General Electric made $14.2 Billion in profit last year. They then paid a whopping $0.00 in taxes. Yes, not one cent and that’s not the worst of it, they also received $3.2 BILLION (with a B) in welfare.
No wonder we need to take it out on the teachers and the prison guards, because the companies like GE are freeloading on our economy.
When Sean Duffy held a listening session recently in Hayward, Wisconsin, he was pressed by several attendees about eliminating tax loopholes and exemptions that allow corporations like GE to get away with this kind of thing.
Oh no, said Duffy, that won’t work and I’ll tell you why.
He then went on to explain that if a struggling K-Mart raised its prices it wouldn’t help them compete in the marketplace with Wal-Mart. I’m not kidding. He actually said that, and then looked at us all as though it made perfect sense.
The analogy reached a level of such absurd hilarity that I almost sprang to my feet in applause. After all, it takes a special kind of talent to say something so blatantly stupid with such a straight face.
Hey, Sean: can you say….con man?