Orrin Hatch - No money to help lazy people depended on Fed Govt. with CHIP

[Shadows]

Congress was supposed to extend the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by Oct. 1. As regular readers know, that was the day current funding for the program, which has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, expired. That was exactly two months ago. As things stand, there is no solution and Republicans don't appear to be working on one. Last night, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), an ardent CHIP proponent, urged Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who helped write the original CHIP legislation before moving sharply to the right, to restore funding for the program before families get hurt. Daily Kos flagged this striking clip from the Senate floor. For those who can't watch clips online, this was the case from the Utah Republican:

"[L]et me tell you something: we're going to do CHIP. There's no question about it in my mind. It's got to be done the right way. But we, the reason CHIP's having trouble is because we don't have money anymore." Hatch went on to condemn the idea of "more and more spending." After praising the "terrific job" CHIP has done for families who need help, he immediately added, "I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves -- won't lift a finger -- and expect the federal government to do everything."

The price tag for the GOP tax plan is roughly $1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, there's the Children's Health Insurance Program, which needs $15 billion. In other words, CHIP costs literally 1% of the overall cost of the Republican tax package. And yet, there was Orrin Hatch, a supporter of his party's tax cuts, making the case on the Senate floor that CHIP's "having trouble" because "we don't have money anymore."

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/during-tax-debate-republican-questions-funding-childrens-health/amp

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Nothing new. Republican politicians are wicked people.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Hatch isn't wrong about the fact that there are folks that, truly, make no effort to work.  It's not an unreasonable expectation that folks do what they CAN do to help themselves, and there are, in fact, folks who simply make no effort to work, and to HOLD a job.  To say that such people don't exist is denial at its most ludicrous.

This, of course, has to be balanced against how difficult the investor class has made it for families to afford housing, be paid living wages, etc.  I'm a college educated man with a job requiring a college degree, and I'm working a 2nd job again.  (My second job is hard, nasty work, but it doesn't conflict with my primary job, which provides my benefits and retirement.) 

My daughter-in-law is a person Sen. Hatch would call lazy.  And, yes, she is.  She also has psychiatric diagnoses that are real.  She has been able to GET a job, but she'll not get up to go to it (major depression or agorophobia), and when she is employed, it's a matter of a few weeks before she provides the workplace drama of some sort that gets her fired.  Many "lazy" people are folks like this; folks who (like my daughter-in-law) are severely damaged by events in their own lives, and not all of them have the sort of family support that pushed them to receive mental health treatment. 

So Orrin Hatch, at heart, is someone who doesn't care about the truly unfortunate.  He cares about the complaints of comfortable folks who's "discomfort" is all about their own set of opportunities being rearranged.  That's as opposed to folks whose discomfort is caused by an economic event that will radically alter their standard of living, which is already suffering.  He's a shill for the folks that fund his campaigns; does that surprise anyone?

I will say this:  One of the biggest forces driving the cost of living up is the "real estate investor".  These folks are mostly vultures; buying rentals up and selling them for inflated rates.  So I propose that there be a MASSIVE FF MOVEMENT to drive folks like HGTV out of business. Their shows (Property Brothers, Love It Or List It, etc.) glorify the "investor" and drive the problem.  America is no better off because folks can successfully speculate in buying and selling houses.  That's an afterthought, but I never want to miss an opportunity to shine light on a problem.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Hatch isn't wrong about the fact that there are folks that, truly, make no effort to work. 

yeah, rich people are terrible

[SoLongAtlas]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Nothing new. Republican politicians are wicked people.

Fixed it.

I can understand political disagreements - when people have different ideas of how the world, government, and laws should be. But at some point in the last couple decades, Republican ideology went over the edge and lost it. They forgot that the core of politics is that we all have to live with each other. And along the way, they've abandoned what has been a cornerstone of Western Civilization since the end of The Hundred Years War. That on issues of personal belief and faith, you just suck it up and get along when you disagree with your neighbors, because the alternative is a whole lot of pointless destruction.


It hasn't been a perfect path. And don't confuse this truth with laws enforcing social norms on things like race or gender. Those often aren't nice either, but they do represent consensus views, and they change when the consensus changes. Not always gently and or prettily. The GOP does not actually do politics anymore. They're just using government as a tool to push their agenda, ideology, and for the personal benefit of those who pull their strings. It's stopped being public government, and it's going to end in ugly violence unless we (everyone who wants public government back) can use what's left of our system of our democracy to take control of our nation back from the evil, foolish, dangerous, idiotic scum who have hijacked it.

[SoLongAtlas]

I agree completely with Ghost's analysis. They have become a party of cutting govt to the bone via starve the beast, middle ages aristocracy and religion, and the economics of "f' em, let them die" for the middle class and especially the poor. It is indeed wicked and not sustainable. That is why I am hoping they moderate within the next ten years but I doubt they will.

[Koharu]

Yeah, let's condemn those kids who can't drop out of school and go to work to get health insurance yet. Oh, wait, we do have child labor laws in this country.

Time and time again, there has been no proof to back up the claim of people taking advantage of the system is a wide-spread problem. Sure, there are people that take advantage of every system. However, from personal experience as a bank teller in a low-income area (Huntington WV, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a more economically depressed area) as well as a volunteer here in Wisconsin, I can say that the number of people simply mooching off the system are very low.

Most of the people receiving "handouts" are working hard to get by. A lot of them can't "hold down a job" for various reasons, but it's not for lack of trying. One person I know is a single father to four children, three of which are triplets. His wife died shortly after the triplets were born. Another I know has a severe mental illness. When they're doing well, they are able to work a normal job and do excellently. But when the cycle hits, they are borderline dangerous and cannot work around the public. My own mother left my father, who was abusive to her, and while she was able to work, it was part-time work that didn't offer insurance. The list goes on and on and on.

Of course, this is all "anecdotal," but any real research done into the "system" supports this. There are always going to be bad apples that try to game any system, but by and large, they do not make up any real majority of people receiving government welfare. Yes, entitlements are a large portion of the budget. But how much of that is what people have paid in and now expect? Retirement, Medicare, etc, etc. To be eligible for those programs (as well as disability), one must have worked enough to qualify for those programs, or have a spouse who did (or be disabled under the age of 21 and qualify via parents). While there also is SSI, which does not require one to pay into the system to qualify, it has many other stringent requirements, as does Medicaid (though of course that varies by state).

And then, coming to CHIP... this is for children. What should it matter if their parents are "gaming the system" or not? We, as a culture, have decided that children are unable to care for themselves in many different matters, and thus, it is on all of us to make sure they are well-cared for if they happen to be ill. There is no way for a child to game the system. They cannot be painted with that brush that Hatch is waving here. They are dependents and while perhaps their parents did not make the best choice, we cannot blame those children. Especially coming from folks who claim to value life--valuing life is more than making sure a child is born. It is also being willing to care for that child once it is born. If this were Medicaid, maybe--maybe--Hatch's argument would make sense. But here? In regards to children? It's ridiculous and anyone who uses that argument in this debate is not pro-life in any real way.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Nothing new. Republican politicians are wicked people.

[MasterJedi]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the rural areas are facing the exact same kinds of poverty, crime and drugs and have even less access to the help they need. To which you get comments basically saying "at least they're not shooting at each other like those black thugs on the north side so I don't care". You teach a group to hate another and make them feel they're superior and they'll never work together, even if they're in similar circumstances and could form a powerful block.

[Koharu]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the rural areas are facing the exact same kinds of poverty, crime and drugs and have even less access to the help they need. To which you get comments basically saying "at least they're not shooting at each other like those black thugs on the north side so I don't care". You teach a group to hate another and make them feel they're superior and they'll never work together, even if they're in similar circumstances and could form a powerful block.

Interestingly, the rural areas are actually having an increase in crimes previously associated with large gang and extremely urban areas. Those numbers aren't being presented in the rural newspapers, of course, but they're there and I hope they realize that they could work together before it's too late.

[SoLongAtlas]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the rural areas are facing the exact same kinds of poverty, crime and drugs and have even less access to the help they need. To which you get comments basically saying "at least they're not shooting at each other like those black thugs on the north side so I don't care". You teach a group to hate another and make them feel they're superior and they'll never work together, even if they're in similar circumstances and could form a powerful block.

Poor whites won't allie with the Dems again anytime soon and this is due to the southern strategy. They did previously under FDR but the SS did away with that. It is in there interest to ally based on economic issues and I agree, a party with AA, white plurality or majority, and moderates would be a lock for decades. Essentially the current Dems if they would get off id politics, but even then I doubt poor whites would cross over. It is cultural voting at this point. Rural GOP vs. suburban/urban Dems. I see this passed down on FB to folks who are still in their twenties but I knew them from HS. Us vs. them, essentially.

[Dr. Arch]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the rural areas are facing the exact same kinds of poverty, crime and drugs and have even less access to the help they need. To which you get comments basically saying "at least they're not shooting at each other like those black thugs on the north side so I don't care". You teach a group to hate another and make them feel they're superior and they'll never work together, even if they're in similar circumstances and could form a powerful block.

Interestingly, the rural areas are actually having an increase in crimes previously associated with large gang and extremely urban areas. Those numbers aren't being presented in the rural newspapers, of course, but they're there and I hope they realize that they could work together before it's too late.

-Looks at president-

HAH

[MasterJedi]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the rural areas are facing the exact same kinds of poverty, crime and drugs and have even less access to the help they need. To which you get comments basically saying "at least they're not shooting at each other like those black thugs on the north side so I don't care". You teach a group to hate another and make them feel they're superior and they'll never work together, even if they're in similar circumstances and could form a powerful block.

Interestingly, the rural areas are actually having an increase in crimes previously associated with large gang and extremely urban areas. Those numbers aren't being presented in the rural newspapers, of course, but they're there and I hope they realize that they could work together before it's too late.

-Looks at president-

HAH

Posted it in the Wisconsin thread on the other board but anyone interested: https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2017/12/4/wisconsin-childhood-trauma-data-explodes-myth-of-not-in-my-small-town.html

[darklordoftech]

TIL that child labor laws make children lazy.

[Rookie Yinzer]

His statement is so ignorant and out of touch. But poor whites will continue to embrace them because they’re racist.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Family values.

[Santander]

I would almost respect the GOP more if they just went openly racist than try to keep up this farcical "fiscal responsibility" charade.

[Virginiá]

"God damn mooching n*****s!" - The GOP sentiment, even if they won't say it in public. Typical.

We don't have the money but more money for F-35s, broken LCSs, and the f'd up Ford class carriers, no problem! - GOP

The "fiscally responsible party" in a nutshell.

Anyway, it is becoming quite clear Hatch is not planning on retiring anymore, given that he's been ramping up his retardedness and racism in advance of the GOP primary.

Celestial Republican Overlord Romney should just primary Hatch if he won't go away voluntarily. This guy is a dinosaur who has already become a parody of his first Senate campaign. I'm not exactly current with Hatch's latest polls, but doesn't a clear majority of Utah voters want someone else?

[Sumner 1868]

Hatch obviously is never planning retirement but a certain someone isn't taking chances.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900005046/trump-pushing-hatch-to-run-for-8th-term.html

[TheSaint250]

Nothing new. Republican politicians are wicked people.

Fixed it.

"Republican are"

Nope you're still wrong

[Dr. Arch]

IF no Democrat has a chance of taking this stooge down, Romney should run.

[Sestak]

Pretty sure that particular comment wasn't actually about CHIP, but about other welfare programs. Hatch has actually introduced a bill with Wyden to extend CHIP.

That being said, I still want Romney to primary him. Not because I hate him or anything, but because having Romney be the deciding vote in the Senate would drive Trump bonkers.

[IceSpear]

IF no Democrat has a chance of taking this stooge down, Romney should run.

In other words, Romney should run.

The DC Fossil must be placed in a museum.

[Pericles]

This is why we need the Democrats in charge in 2018 and 2020.