“We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can’t afford their co-payment.”
–Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Feb. 27, 2011Haley Barbour’s colorful remark, made to The Washington Post while attending a National Governors Association meeting in Washington this week, recalls Ronald Reagan’s description of a “welfare queen” living high on government largess, driving a Cadillac. In Reagan’s telling, she bilked the government out of $150,000, when the actual case involved $8,000.
Next it’ll be strapping young bucks buying Kobe beef.
McGeorge Bundy
Why should they change? It works.
Napoleon
Of course the BMW could be owned by a Good Samaritan neighbor who took a home bound neighbor to the drug store to get her meds.
Bootlegger Bootleggerovich
Or naming their kids Kobe.
Damien
YOu know, it’s getting really hard to resist the impulse to just lose it and punch my $200k/year neighbors when they start spouting this shit. It’s in an unspoken reality of our country that we’re in the middle of a class war, and it’s the rich who are winning.
I used to think that we’d be able to avoid violence, but if history is any guide things are going to get nasty. This type of economic cycle almost always ends in revolt. In our case, with our media, I fully expect we’ll get a civil war instead… again.
Joy.
4tehlulz
Needs more Mau Mau.
Bootlegger Bootleggerovich
I want pictures. Barber’s memory is too much like swiss cheese for anyone to trust. And who the fuck is “we”?
Culture of Truth
BMW — that’s a Kenyan car, isn’t it?
tomvox1
But, but, but… Haley’s “colorful!” Plus, he, um, buys the booze and is an ol’ time, sweet-talkin’ Southern Man with great stories from the 60s and killer tickets to games, so… Colorful!
Lolis
OT: Progressives have a great ad on Wisconsin
http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/sign_wiunion_waronworkingfamilies/?source=wowf
dr. bloor
@Culture of Truth:
Unionized Kenyans, no doubt.
David Koch
That Haley is a piece of ass.
Ash Can
At least Barbour’s being quoted here in the context of an article that specifically calls him out on his bullshit. Kudos to the WaPo for practicing some actual journomalism.
Zifnab
@Napoleon: Or he could be pulling the story straight out of his ass.
“Lady shows up in car”
becomes
“Lady shows up in her own car”
becomes
“Lady shows up in her BWM”
becomes
“Lady shows up in her BWM with the new car sticker STILL IN THE WINDOW!”
becomes
“Lady shows up in her chaffered limo, rolls out the red carpet, steps into the pharmacy, and extends her diamond encrusted hand to bemoan an inability to cover her co-payment”
And it’s the God’s Honest truth, because who you gonna believe?
R-Jud
@David Koch: More than a piece.
Morbo
@Damien: I got damn close to that myself a few days ago. If you’re retired at 50 and start spouting off about how unemployed people just need to get jobs and we need to end food stamps, you can get fucked.
David Koch
I can’t decode this dog whistle, but it must be a good one.
David Koch
Haley Barbour is 63 yrs old and 285 lbs., why hasn’t he dropped dead, like Russert?
Redshift
Sigh. Last week I was on a trip with my family staying with a wealthy friend of my uncle’s, who was perfectly pleasant except when he brought up politics, and then we’d get arguments straight out of the National Review that was on the coffee table, like climate change denial and our health care costs are because of people who go to the doctor too much and doctors charging too many tests because they’re afraid they’ll get sued. One that continues to bug me, though, is “I go to the Mayo Clinic and don’t use Medicare, so why shouldn’t I get a refund?”
I was a good guest and was avoiding bitching out my host, so I didn’t feel I could say:
a. You’ll forgive me if the problems of rich people who can pay all their medical expenses out of pocket do not rate high on my list of concerns when we still have people who die because they can’t afford health care, and,
b. Because it’s an insurance program, and if an insurance program gives refunds to people who don’t need the coverage, it’s not an insurance program, and,
c. In my opinion, people who are fortunate enough to be rich should be fucking grateful for what they have and for all the support their country has provided that allowed them to get there, rather than whining about how unfair it is that some piddling amount of it goes to the support the vast majority of us who are less fortunate.
MattF
And granite countertops with arugula stains.
Redshift
@David Koch:
I dunno, it seems like a straightforward “an uppity Nigra shouldn’t ever be allowed to tell us white folk what to do,” but maybe there’s more to it.
Redshift
@David Koch:
Hate is apparently the key to longevity (see Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond.)
Zifnab
@David Koch: He’s got the best health care the state of Mississippi can buy.
Southern Beale
yeah you know who bilked the gummint out of buttloads of money? Rick Scott, now governor of Florida.. $1.7 billion just to settle the charges — largest fraud settlement in U.S. history.
Amazing that conservatives always forget who the real welfare queens are.
Bulworth
@Bootlegger Bootleggerovich: The five David Brooks and Haley (which I’m pretty sure is a girl’s name–just sayin).
Persia
@Napoleon: Or the BMW could be twenty years old, bought when the person driving it was in good health and held on to as a reliable car and reminder of the good times. People not affected by major illness are infuriatingly oblivious to how quickly you can lose everything.
CoffeeTim
I want to see the video. Don’t most drive thru pharmacies have security cameras? The ones here sure do. Surely he’d have documentation before spouting this stuff, right?
MikeJ
@David Koch: Absolute proof of god would supersede the existence of faith. Beer is proof god loves us. Therefore, there must be some other equally strong proof the other way.
jurassicpork
We’re hearing the same thing about unions in general, courtesy of Fox. Exhibit #1: Fox News at its Finest, Part XI: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Madison World edition.
Llelldorin
@David Koch:
Wow–so much crap wrapped up in that one little statement.
In the nineteenth century, countries wanting their traders to do business in China had to make obeisance to the emperor and declare the superiority of the Chinese imperial throne. Barbour’s complaining that he shouldn’t have to similarly acknowledge the US Federal Government (!) over MIssissippi (!!) in order to receive US taxpayer’s money (!!!). The kowtow part thus combines poorly-aged CSA bullshit with the usual Southern Republican “heavily federally-subsidized rugged individualist!” meme.
The “kiss the ring” thing does double-duty–it connotes both old-school Southern anti-Catholocism (sometimes southern conservatives forget they’re supposed to be allies now) and mobsters, thus reinforcing the “Obama == Labor Unions == Organized Crime” thing.
All in all–that’s a spectacularly nasty piece of work.
John Dillinger
Doug J is the man. See
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/03/what_mike_huckabee_really_got.html
When do we get the Chuck Lane piece defending Huckabee?
Posted by: DougJ3 | March 1, 2011 11:48 PM |
steviez314
Well, at least he didn’t say “pimped-out Escalade”
Rpx
From now on the media should treat claims like this the way guys want proof when a buddy said he banged a celebrity.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Tokyokie
@Persia: I was thinking along the same lines. If I’d paid off the five-year note on my Beemer shortly before getting laid off, yeah, I think I’d keep ahold of it. Especially if the options are relying on Mississippi’s splendid mass transit or assuming an additional payment I couldn’t afford.
MikeJ
@Llelldorin: You don’t have to actually argue with the parody trolls.
daveNYC
So Obama is now a Pope or Godfather type figure?
Ash Can
@David Koch:
Uh-oh. Is that your ring he’s taking about? Boy, you just can’t find good help these days. First Maria, now this guy.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Culture of Truth:
BMW actually stand for
B.ob M.arley & the W.ailers… which would make it jamaican…
MikeJ
I’m curious what cars are on Haley’s list of approved cars for being unable to afford a copay.
JPL
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Westboro Baptist Church.
Can we now ignore the assholes?
Persia
@Tokyokie: I guess the sick people are supposed to walk or bike everywhere. Sounds about right.
Redshift
@Persia: Yep. I know someone who drives a Jaguar, which she retained after getting divorced, and otherwise lives pretty modestly (though she’s not poor.) But the whole statement is just more dog-whistle for “the gummint is stealing from hard-working people like you and giving it to lazy undeserving you-know-whats, so you should support gutting social programs and regulation and let big corporations steal it instead.”
Stefan
“We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can’t afford their co-payment.”—Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Feb. 27, 2011
We have crypto-racist Southern governors lying their asses off.
stuckinred
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount attention-getting, anti-gay protests outside military funerals.
Erik Vanderhoff
Ha! Joke is on them! You can’t buy Kobe beef right now, because Japan voluntarily closed its borders!
(Yes, yes, I know you can still get Wagyu; don’t ruin my pedantism for me.)
pablo
Anti-Animalist! Even “Young Bucks” have feelings!
Captain Haddock
I actually feel bad for people that are this motivated by resentment of imaginary scofflaws.
Bootlegger Bootleggerovich
The Ring is clearly a reference to My Precioussssss.
Ash Can
Once the 2012 campaigns get going in earnest, Sarah Palin is going to be plenty pissed at Haley Barbour. He’s going to be siphoning off all the white supremacists and leaving her with no one in her audiences except for a few forced-birthers and homeless winos.
Canadian Shoggoth
@Llelldorin:
I also think the kowtow is a shout-out to the Right’s stroke over Obama bowing to various heads of state when on trips to other countries earlier in 2009/10.
You are bang on with the ring kiss as a anti-catholic ref, which iirc was heavily deployed against JFK which ties the whole dog-whistle jamboree together
Litlebritdifrnt
Sort of OT but I have been thinking a lot about the “what changed” theme around here for the last few days and I have a question, who here does themselves or knows anyone at all who darns socks? Seriously, my Mum is a sock darner, she also refuses to throw away any food until there really is no hope of it being incorporated into something (me and the other ladies here have had discussions about the funny things we find in the fridge after a Mum visit).
We live in a throw away society, clothes don’t get repaired when they wear out, they get thrown away and replaced. Same with a tv or any other appliance, replace it instead of repairing it.
Expectations have changed. As I mentioned about HGTV’s Househunters and the awful women who walk into a walk-in closet the size of my master bedroom and say “well this will be fine for my clothes but where will you put yours honey?” *giggle*. Who the f**k needs that many clothes? Have you seen an antique wardrobe from the 50s? Why does a couple with one child need a four bedroom three bath house?
Expectations driven by the media and advertising. I mean really where did the whole granite countertop thing begin?
Sorry for the OT but I had to get that off my chest.
Kristine
@Southern Beale:
Boy, this is the truth. FTW. This. Etc, etc, etc…
Maude
@Litlebritdifrnt:
All I can tell you is visit Newport, Rhode Island and have a gander at the summer cottages.
That attitude has spread to the point where more people feel they should have things the size of their egos.
gene108
@daveNYC:
The right-wing noise machine pretty early on dubbed Obama as a Godfather type figure, because he’s from Chicago. Chicago politicians are corrupt and have mob ties, therefore Obama has mob-style tendencies in handling problems, like rubbing out his opponents. It’s an old narrative, but many right-wingers are eager to believe it.
JGabriel
Napoleon:
Or a former single-digit millionaire who lost everything when Bushcheney crashed the economy, and is now persona grata among the GOP for becoming lower middle class and voting for Obama.
.
Doug Hill
@John Dillinger:
I think we will get one defending either Huck or Barbour.
Stefan
Or the BMW could be twenty years old, bought when the person driving it was in good health and held on to as a reliable car and reminder of the good times. People not affected by major illness are infuriatingly oblivious to how quickly you can lose everything.
I had a friend who was laid off from his high-paying job three years ago in the Great Recession and didn’t find work again for over two years, during which time he pretty much drained his savings. During all that time, he still lived in his million dollar condo, which he couldn’t sell because (a) he was underwater on the mortgage, and (b) no one was buying.
And wouldn’t you know it, despite the fact that the guy had absolutely no money coming in and was one accident away from total financial devastation, I still heard people bitch about the fact that he couldn’t be doing badly if he lived in that high-priced apartment and wore nice clothes (also bought years ago back when he still had money). They completely ignored the fact that assets do not equal income.
Omnes Omnibus
@Maude: Versailles.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
Unless you’re a regular, you don’t know that “David Koch” is a parody troll.
Therefore, Poe’s Law is fully in force.
Ukko
I paid $2500 for my BMW, or does everybody in Mississippi drive new cars?
Mike in NC
But being a right wing asshole these days is very much in style.
Did Barbour go on to claim he saw MLK Jr. behind the wheel of that BMW?
JGabriel
@CoffeeTim:
AH-hahahahaha! Good one.
.
catclub
@Redshift: I think my response will start to be: “So, you really have no idea what it means to be a nation, that we are all in this together?”
David Koch
Haley made a mistake. Blacks just aren’t associated with BMWs. BMWs are associated with affluent whites, a class every one aspires to enter. You can’t knock something people dream of.
He should of said Boom-Boxes. Even though nobody uses Boom-Boxes anymore, the symbolism is still ingrained with hard working whites.
WereBear
@Redshift: “Kiss the ring” refers to the Pope and is anti-Catholic (aka KKK)
Scott P.
This has nothing to do with laziness, but everything to do with the fact that clothes are cheaper today.
Another factor is the availability of free household labor. In the 1950s, folks like your mother stayed at home. Households had in effect a full-time domestic servant with plenty of time to darn socks and patch holes. People’s time is just much more valuable today.
John PM
To be fair, this can’t be a racist comment because generally African American’s drive Cadillac’s, at least according to some of my more “colorful” relatives. So Haley must be referring to the race-traitors who voted for Obama.
David Koch
@John PM: This is what I’m talking about.
Haley’s coded race-fu is weak tea.
catclub
I also remember my parents telling me that one reason some people do not invest in, and maintain, a nice home is that
some people get turned away from buying homes in certain neighborhoods, but that car dealers did not have such scruples.
Conspicuous consumption takes different forms for varied reasons.
Paul in KY
@Redshift: I wish you’d mentioned that as you were leaving ;-)
I know though, it is hard to tell the person hosting you what a douche they are (I have refrained myself from the same action).
I hope you ate all his arugula.
Judas Escargot
Future-misses works in pharmacy, in a well-off suburb. And, to be frank, there’s definitely some degree of fraud (ie someone with a MassHealth card who pays off the balance with their Amex Platinum). It’s rare enough to mention it to me when it happens, but happens often enough to form an observable pattern.
However, the typical case she sees is white, female, 30s/40s. Lexus SUVs and Mini Coopers seem to be their preferred mode of transport. (IMO the few minorities in that town aren’t “well connected” enough to get cards fraudulently).
I’d bet that most of those well-off ladies vote Republican, BTW. It’s a very conservative (and, frankly, racist) little town.
Svensker
Our friend has a BMW. He was a moderately successful business owner whose small company went under during the recession. He’s burned through his savings and lost his condo, has been living in his sister’s basement or with us. He’s been unemployed for over a year now, but he still has his cellphone and his Beemer. If he doesn’t have a job by the time his unemployment bennies run dry, the BMW will be the next to go.
batgirl
@MikeJ:
Obviously, if you have a car at all, then you should be able to afford the copay. Otherwise sell the car and walk to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription like his granddaddy did!
Judas Escargot
Hmm. Comment in moderation. Too many brand names?
Michael D.
I would think Kobe would have plenty of money to buy his own beef.
Henk
@Damien: Joy, I am starting to think, we should go with those baser impulses. Civility be damned. Personally I am sharpening my skills a a local gun range, not that I would encourage that, but I have a feeling that there are those on the other side who think that there will be no return fire. There will be.
twiffer
@Persia: had a very similar thought.
also, let’s not forget that if you lose you job, you should get rid of all your stuff, instead of, you know, keeping it while you look for a new job.
liberal
@Redshift:
I don’t agree with this sentiment. Most people in the US who are rich got that way because either they are or their ancestors were rent-collecting parasites. (I’m talking economic rents here.)
So it’s usually not a nice picture like “government and society provided the support, and you used that support to make a productive contribution to the economy and at the same time got rich.” It’s more like “you stole it from the rest of us.”
johng
@Damien:
You mean you don’t hit them already?
Sometimes, a neighbor will ring the doorbell, tell me what they said yesterday and patiently wait for me to step out onto the porch and hit them.
Midnight Marauder
@Llelldorin:
I certainly don’t think you can discount an allusion to all black people being pimps of some kind.
johng
@Damien:
Actually, and seriously, what needs to happen is for 60-75% of the country to identify as “poor”, instead of comfortable. That way, when some heinie-wipe spouts off this BS, the 75% who identify will become enraged and boo that person away from the dinner table.
A person who owes $100k on a student loan, and makes $35k at an 80 hour a week job does not consider themselves to be the working poor, and their resentment is easily targeted over to those who take advantage of government programs (and by ‘take advantage’, I mean ‘use’). For some reason, the 80 hour a week slave never thinks twice about the person that pays them that paltry salary and dumps work on their desk at 4:45pm that is due 1st thing the next morning.
PurpleGirl
@Stefan: A few years ago I ranted about this idea after I read something a wingnut wrote about unemployed people not looking poor. I had a decent paying job and had worked for 30+ years so, yes, I had some nice stuff and continued to wear and use it. It really amazes me that the wingnuts don’t think that you may lose your job but you had years of good income to get good things which last.
@Litlebritdifrnt: I don;t darn my socks, but there are some things I do fix because I can’t get the style slacks anymore and I really like them. (Darning socks probably wouldn’t be good for my feet, health wise.)
Carnacki
@David Koch: D.W. Griffith with Birth of a Nation did it much better.
Carnacki
@Redshift: No, that’s it. It’s confusing because it’s less subtle than usual.
Llelldorin
@MikeJ:
Parody troll he may be, but the quote is accurate.
dongo
Of course they can’t afford the co-pay.
You ever have to pay to get a BMW serviced?
ppcli
@David Koch: I don’t think it’s a mistake. It’s a sign that they’ve got a new target in their sights. The BMW will turn out to have been driven by a unionized high school social-studies teacher who listens to NPR and teaches her kids that gays are not damned to hell.
Persia
@Redshift: Oh yeah. The whole ‘poor and sick people have to give up everything of quality in their lives’ meme just drives me bonkers.
Leah
Gov Haley Barbour cut the state Medicaid rolls drastically in his first term as Governor. The state just couldn’t afford all those people getting health care, even though he’d already lowered taxes on business, and the other usual suspects.
This was in 2004, and there was a brief uptick of anger on the part of those who were being cut off; many of them were white and older, but not yet old enough for Medicare.
The only national journalist to cover it was Bill Moyers on PBS. Here’s a link to the episode of NOW.
You should take a look; it was a preview to what we’re seeing from the entire Republican party. Take a look at the video of the protests against the move; do any of the protesters look like they’re driving a BMW. Another reason to take a look, it is so clear that people are going to die because of these cuts; people like an older guy in his fifties with Diabetes, and Barbour just didn’t care. Today’s Republican Party is without conscience and without shame. Here’s a link to a transcript of the episode, if the video is hard to find.
Daddy Love
@Zifnab:
I think it’s
“Lady shows up in her Bentley, spinners twirling, throws a watermelon rind onto the pavement, steps into the pharmacy, and opens her mouth to show her diamond-encrusted teeth while bemoaning an inability to cover her co-payment.”
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
That’s fully as credible as all his other statements. For example:
.
.
Maine Independent
Maybe the person who owns the BMW cannot sell it, after all, maybe not many people in MI can afford one. You shouldn’t have to give up all you worked years for to pay all the bills because the Rethugs crashed the economy.
Time for a class war, a real one, where the rich actually have to fear for their existence, like the rest of us do.
rikyrah
a CAC in a suit is still a CAC.
Jason
In the WaPo, any blatantly racist dogwhistle from the right is a “colorful” remark..