Maybe by Paul’s definition, KY is the Queen of States. Certainly, the corporations living off taxpayer contributions, lots of them tax benefits for offshoring jobs, should be called Welfare Queens of Wall Street.

Well, the senile movie star said it, and he’s the Pukes’ favorite president ever. So it must be OK.

I think it was only “Cadillac-driving welfare queens,” that were problematic. And, since any good American capitalist wouldn’t be caught dead in one…

Defense contractors are the Welfare Queens.

Please. As a native Kentuckian living away, I would consider Texas to be Paul’s “home state” no matter where he may currently reside. Even if he is in a beautiful city like Bowling Green.

That’s been part of Paul’s “open mouth to change feet” problem – more than a few of his statements have shown a decided lack of knowledge and awareness of the state and its history.

Don’t fob Paul off on us, we’ve got enough wingnut wackos thank you very much.

From Ronnie Reagan to Bob Dole the Repubs love the term. It works for them. He obviously knows it still appeals to his base. So, its use is a winner for him. What we need to do is show that the new “teabaggers” are the same old Repubs. SSDD.

Kentucky is a welfare queen!

Indeed.

Of course, Rand is talking about those Kentuckians. The problem is those blackety black black blackety black blacks.

Let Rand Paul be Rand Paul!

Good to see he can still slip his McConnell minders every now and then, even if Rand abandoned his pledge not to take money from any bailout-yes Senators and attended his own Mitch-organized Bailout Ball.

Let yer freak flag fly, Randy!

I’m glad that these people are finally starting to admit that Washington and Big Government is just a way to funnel scads of unearned money into their states from places like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and California.

Never too late for the truth.

Rand’s waxed eyebrows lend a feminine quality to his appearance. Rather like a queen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I think the person that wrote this is projecting way too much.

Rand Paul is actually admonishing his own Party, the GOP, for thinking that cutting social spending for the poor (i.e., Welfare) is a fix for bringing down the National Debt. He is trying to make the point (and a good one) that other sacred cows have to be cut (hint: the collosal Defense Budget) in order to make a dent in the National Debt.

The term “Welfare Queen” was invented by Ronald Reagan and not Paul. If Ronald Reagan is not a racist, then neither is anyone else for using the term. Rather that get all excited and caught-up with manufactured outrage over the term “Welfare Queen”, it is more productive to look at the key point here that Paul was making.

Which was: Cutting social sending for the poor is not the answer. I like it when people on “the right” finally come to that correct realization. There are so few within the Republican Party that will even open their eyes to that fact.

So these comments are quite welcome coming from a non-Democrat.

Oh Kentucky has more than its share of wingnut wackos already. Of course, with people like McConnell, Bunning, Harold Rogers, and Geoff Davis all in DeeCee from the state, Paul will not be that far from the norm for the R party of Kentucky

If Ronald Reagan is not a racist, then neither is anyone else for using the term.

Can’t say if St. “I’m for states’ rights” Ronnie was a racist, but he was sure as hell a race baiter.

I wish I could distribute free translated copies of “Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder” all over the US of A.

Matt Taibbi has a good deal to say about Kentucky, Federal assistance, and Rand Paul in his latest, Tea & Crackers: How corporate interests and Republican insiders built the Tea Party monster.

In which he describes the scene at a Louisville Palin hoedown,

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can’t imagine it.

Much more at the link.

If “Welfare Queen” isn’t a term with racial baggage, how come one never thinks of, say poor white Appalachians when that term is used? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen#Gendered_and_racial_stereotypes

Sir, you have the nut graf of that article, right there.

Reagan was a mean-spirited jerk who posed wherever his handlers and his bosses (The Bush Crime Family) told him to pose.

As a mean-spirited prick, a dandy and a jackass, Reagan had no issues with giving speeches at Bob Jones, Welfare Cadillacs, Honduran Death Squads, Heroine and Cocaine Dealing and ketchup as vegetables for school lunches.

Neither did Raygun have a lively sense of humor nor was he an orator. He was a boring old man who gave boring corn pone speeches.

I would consider Texas to be Paul’s “home state” no matter where he may currently reside.

And yet Rand Paul was born in Pennsylvania. Ditto what BT said. I spent years trying to point out that the wanking chimp was born in Connecticut and spent his childhood in Maine but people kept trying to make him a Texan. Don’t start with Rand Paul.

Most poor people are white. But let’s look a little deeper into Leonhardt’s article rather than seize upon Paul’s quoted words. Mr. Leonhardt attributes the federal debt to three large entities: Medicare, Social Security and military expenditures. At no time does he use an honest focus and admit that Social Security which is self-funding and pays for itself is Off-Budget, a separate program. Nor does he talk about how Medicare is funded and about the true problem of the excessive pricing of health care. And lastly, nowhere does he take a look at the trillion dollar military unfunded liabilities.

On Paul’s behalf, I will offer him this: Do you know how miniscule the benefits are and onerous the requirements are for TANF recipients? Do have any idea of how small the funds are for this program when compared to any other social welfare program? The lack of understanding and compassion that I see in the politicians must be totally humiliating for the unfortunate participants in these programs. First rein in your out of control military spending and then we will talk about how we spent you into a corner by helping the poor.

And now the Honduran Death Squads under Obama have overthrown the Government there. President Obama violated International Law and US law by having relations with the coup Government there. The news has completely ignored this: It requires Impeachment.

Welfare Queens…….

Big Oil
Finance Services Industry
Tax exempt health insurers and providers
Banks
BP….

Rand Paul, keep talking trash……

Do you know how miniscule the benefits are and onerous the requirements are for TANF recipients?

Of course he doesn’t! In fact it is people just like Rand Paul who have made the requirements so onerous and guaranteed that the poor will stay poor by making meeting those requirements a full time occupation.

Rand Paul in the quote seems to be refuting Ronald Reagan’s assertion that “welfare queens” are a big drain on the budget. Even coupled with his Libertarian view that some Civil Rights laws are inappropriate, I don’t find it exactly racist on Paul’s part, since the “w.q.” term is a R.R. quote. But both Paul statements could attract racist voters.

If Ronald Reagan is not a racist

“Ronald Reagan was the devil.”

“I really thought “welfare queen” had gone the way of Willie Horton and had been banned from polite conversation,”

No, only in that politically correct world you people live in. He actually made a good point. Keep up believing in that which does not exist. Helps keep you out of trouble.

Welfare is the devil, my friend. An addictive devil.

That is about the most precise and specific, as well as the best and most-honest, biography of Ronald Reagan which I can possibly imagine.

You summed the actor up to actual perfection, which is the truth, as opposed to the too-common presumed and worshiped “perfection”.

Well done, Hackworth1!

DW

Fair enough — you could read it that way.

But at a minimum, if you’re going to throw around a racist term with that much baggage, you need to make that clear.

Spoken like a “good chrizz-jun conservative”…

That’s why nobody noticed he had Alzheimer’s disease until it was quite advanced. You don’t have to be anything but ambulatory to do what Reagan did.

Yeah, fuck the poor!

/asinine

Ronald Reagan should be in prison.

Maybe the people on welfare could make hunger an addiction. All problems solved. “Welfare Queen” is one of the great racist code terms the Rs like to use.

Polite political conversation? That doesn’t exist any more and the sooner we progressives drop the Ms. Manners manual when combating with the Teatards and rethugs the sooner we’ll get their respect (aka fear) and be able to get something besides tax cuts for the rich passed thru congress.

The best defense is an offense and you have to fight fire with fire – platitudes that win the political wars – If you’re interested in winning that is…

Dead man’s prison?

OMG! Surely he wasn’t talking about the 20 million Americans that are unemployed and the rest of the population that is under employed?

I will have to give it to him for telling his party they need to look at the entire picture.

Sheesh! Where on God’s green earth is Dr. Dean when you need him? Somebody needs to SCREECH!

You shouldn’t use the phrase “my friend”, tinhat. People like you don’t have friends… you’re too busy screaming at the poor, telling them to just get over it!

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post available: Hacker: Democrats Unwilling to Let Bush Tax Cuts Expire

I really thought “welfare queen” had gone the way of Willie Horton and had been banned from polite conversation…

Right, “Teabagger” is the new slur of choice.

“But when Republicans deride “welfare queens,” they’re not talking about nice white honest ‘merkuns in Kentucky. It’s those lazy, shiftless blacks in Detroit that are the problem.”

By definition, a welfare queen is someone of ANY RACE who is committing welfare fraud. Rand Paul never said anything about welfare queens being black, YOU DID! When you heard the term welfare queen it was YOU who came up the the image of “lazy shiftless blacks.” So really, you’re the one who’s being racist, and you’re projecting your racism onto Rand Paul. Projection is a common psychological defense mechanism.

That’s not a slur – it was first spoken during the “mail a teabag” movement, by members of the movement. They called themselves “teabaggers”, and we snickered. Only when one of them found Urban Dictionary online, did it suddenly become a slur to them.

Welfare Queen? Didn’t Rand himself take over a million dollars in Medicare & Medicaid billings?

“Paul declined to say how much money he gets from the programs, but he said approximately 50 percent of his income is Medicare and 5 percent is Medicaid. According to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Paul has been paid $130,461 over the last five years through Medicaid. If that represents 5 percent of his income, then Paul’s Medicare payments over the same period would be more than $1.3 million or about $260,000 a year.

From http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2010/06/18/paul-urges-tough-love-for-long-term-jobless/
if link no workee

First rein in your out of control military spending and then we will talk about how we spent you into a corner by helping the poor.

Exactly. The percentage of the US budget spent on “welfare” programs is miniscule to begin with – thanks to Republican POTUSes Reagan & Clinton – that it’s risable to even bring it up as an “issue.” Yet conservatives – as we can clearly see – will jump to the bait every time. Doug Coe’s C Street “Family” churches propound the notion of “prosperity Xtianity,” which essentially & baldly states that if you’re poor, it’s all your fault bc you don’t “work hard enough” and you’re probably a debased evil sinner to boot. therefore, if you’re poor, you don’t deserve any help. Nice.

But these same prosperity Xtians, who are mostly racist & think only dusky-hued people are poor slackers looking to ride on the welfare train, are A-OK with all corporate welfare, all welfare for the hedgefunders who only pay 15% capital gains taxes on their zillions of earnings, and all A-OK with unbridled spending on the military, which is loaded with gov’t contractor welfare pork (soldiers getting electrocuted to death in the showers in Iraq anyone? pallets of US dollars being flown over to Iraq never to be seen again anyone?).

Yes, what Randy Paul said was deliberately racist. It’s who Rand Paul is, and it’s what he does.

That falls under: It’s Ok if You’re a White Libertarian.

And was never used again as a slur in polite conversation, oops.

I guess Teatards and rethugs as used above aren’t slurs either.

Of course they’re slurs. The DIFFERENCE is that there are no Democrats running for the Senate who call people “teabaggers”.

Welfare? is that a state for federal program? I hear states cover most of the funding? I heard a stat not to long ago that stated Federal program was equal to .003% of the defense budget? Not sure about that percent, probably should double it. Sounds like the amount is kinda small to me never the less.

So I guess IOKIYFDL.

: – )

None of us are running for the Senate. Rand Paul is. Why are you having a problem grasping the distinction?

“For every dollar Kentucky sends to Washington in federal taxes”

Demonstrates just what an intellectual paraplegic Blue Texan is.

Kentucky doesn’t send a Dollar in federal taxes, people do. Unless you can do a life long, constant dollar, time discounted accounting of what people currently living in Kentucky have paid to and received from the federal government this is meaningless.

More Bullshit from FDL.

There you go again…

:P

Oh and BTW, the US is stuffed with welfare queens. They’re mainly sitting around the kitchen tables on their farms in the mid-west.

In all honesty, I didn’t know Welfare Queen was a racist term and I’m old enough to remember when it was first uttered. I concede it was a dogwhistle term back then, but is it still?

And I agree with the above commenter, Paul was simply saying you can’t just lop off one chunk of the budget to balance it.

I offer our Cadillac Queen Candidate Meg Whitman’s “stand” as something much much worse than what Paul said. She is running paid radio ads that propose taking tax dollars from the welfare portion of the budget and putting it into the UC system to “save our schools”!

First of all, do we need to be presented with such a Sophie’s Choice? Second, everyone knows the UC is bloated with administrative costs that could be trimmed without affecting the quality of the education to kids. (It’s the admins with the fat cat Wall Street type salaries, not the folks in the classroom or actually on campus). But I digress.

Agreed. He definitely wasn’t pushing racists away. Maybe the campaign is trying to attract racists through what they don’t say.
…If they’re that smart.

Rand Paul = pot

piss pot?

Apparently, you morons are saying that appealing to racism is the best, or maybe only, way to win an election. And that there are “dogwhistle” words that are a secret signal to the hidden racist electorate telling them what candidate will reinforce their racial hatred. You’re too stupid to know how stupid you sound.

“The term “Welfare Queen” was invented by Ronald Reagan and not Paul. If Ronald Reagan is not a racist, then neither is anyone else for using the term.”

Ronnie Reagan was a racist and Lee Atwater taught him how to find his followers. Atwater’s death bed confession to all was that Repubs and other degenerates were no longer going to say “n n n n n ” . They were going to say “busing” and “welfare queen” and “high crime areas.” That’s why when Lani Ganier was appointed to be the AG Bob Dole called her, a Yale educated attorney, a “welfare queen” They can’t use the “n n n n ” word anymore. So they use other words. And some habits just die hard. I’m with Teddy, let your freak flag fly Rand. It will be easy to find you.

Well, there are a few of those types of welfare queens sitting around kitchen tables in places like Alaska as well.

Or did you miss the Joe Miller story?

Disgusting, shiftless, lazy, criminal welfare kings and queens?

You mean aynrandall just attacked wall street?

I’d like to slap the kkk out of this moron.

No, I think he’s gotta be talking about congressmen. It’s not an insult.

What about the Robber Baron Wall Street Welfare Queens, their 24-karat gold toilets, and their almost trillion dollar bail-out by U.S. taxpayers in 2008?

Those imaginary Reagan era “welfare queens” can’t hold a candle to today’s Robber Baron Wall Street Welfare Queens, who are now pushing for another multi-trillion dollar bail-out by all other U.S. taxpayers by having Congress extend budget-busing deficit-exploding Bush era tax cuts for them.

Rand was talking about eMeg Whitman? She’s put up a bid on EBay to buy the State of California Governorship. $125 million of her “own” money and rising. “Own” as in the form of welfare handouts from her chums at Goldman-Sachs.

Welfare Meg steered EBay business to Goldman-Sachs, which then reciprocated by giving eMeg positions on their Initial Public Offerings such that eMeg would own the stock for the one day of the IPO, then sell the next on the wave of the temporary blip up in share price.

This she admitted by paying a substantial fine to the SEC. If that ain’t a type of welfare: corporate welfare in the form of kick-backs.

Now she has kicked her Latino maid under the bus. Meanwhile Welfare Meg’s running ads in San Francisco bashing welfare recipients. The filth rich bashing the poorest of the poor.

This she admitted by paying a substantial fine to the SEC. If that ain’t a type of welfare: corporate welfare in the form of kick-backs.

Now she has kicked her Latino maid under the bus. Meanwhile Welfare Meg’s running ads in San Francisco bashing welfare recipients. The filth rich bashing the poorest of the poor.

Now lets see compared to her welfare of millions how much her Maid (another welfare queen Mr. Paul was referring to) would have made after working hard a year at minimum wage without vacation:

$7.25/hour * 40 hour/week * 52 week/year = $15,040 (Before Taxes)

The above equation was a class exercise my economics teacher gave us long while back to sensitize us to other peoples issues and I think each one of us in the class remember this lesson.