Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who is running to replace Senator Ben Nelson, has a big problem with poor people.
In a speech this week, Nebraska AG Jon Bruning (R) compared welfare recipients to scavenging animals, suggesting the state is making it too “easy” for them.
“The raccoons — they’re not stupid, they’re gonna do the easy way if we make it easy for them. Just like welfare recipients all across America,” said Bruning, who is running for Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) seat.
“If we don’t send them to work, they’re gonna take the easy route.”
Yeah, poor people! Quit taking the easy way out by living off welfare! Go get "one of those jobs," as Sharron Angel would say.
Of course the problem with this line of thinking is that it is neither easy to get on welfare, or to actually live off of it once you do. In some cases it's the only thing keeping someone from sleeping in the street.
The other problem is that there are no jobs to send people off to. And with many employers now implicitly discriminating against unemployed people during their hiring process, the deck is stacked against these "raccoons," as Jon Bruning calls them.
There are very few reasons to be a fan of Senator Ben Nelson, a notorious Blue Dog, but this is one of those cases where party purity needs to be set aside to prevent a true monster from taking office.
The truth is there is no majority in congress without a few Blue Dogs in the mix, and I'll take a Blue Dog over a Teabagger who refers to poor people as raccoons any day.