Rich Congressman Issa: Our Poor Are ‘The Envy Of The World’
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Rep. Darrell Issa, the richest member of congress, believes America’s poor are to be envied.
Issa (R-CA) built his personal fortune, estimated to be nearly $450 million, by selling car alarms. So there was something a bit incongruous about comments he made during an interview with CNN Money’s Cristina Alesci this week in which he described America’s poor as “somewhat the envy of the world.”
“America’s the richest country on Earth because we’ve been able to put capital together and we’ve been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world,” Issa said in response to the issue of income inequality. “If you go to India or you go to any number of third-world countries, you have two problems: you have greater inequality of income and wealth. You also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have-not to the have.”
When Alesci suggested that the U.S. should “set the bar” higher than a comparison to India, Issa cut her off, asking, “Why shouldn’t we?”
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Larry Schmitt May 8th, 2015 at 2:22 pm
Didn’t we get enough of this line of BS a few years ago when Stuart Varney, Bill O’Reilly and other Fox Not News clowns, who also happen to be quite rich, for doing nothing but talking, went on and on about how people who are supposedly “poor” have a microwave and a fridge and a cell phone, and maybe even a car, so how can they be poor? Someone needs to teach these assh0les the meaning of the word “empathy.” Also “working poor.”
pignose4.0 May 8th, 2015 at 3:08 pm
Yep I see poor folks pushing their cart around with all their stuff in it..must be a microwave in there somewhere didn’t see a fridge though.
Dwendt44 May 8th, 2015 at 4:50 pm
They don’t bother to check and see how the poor survive. A ten year old projection TV that a relative gave them because that relative upgraded to a LED, and the right wing nut jobs only comments is: “Look how big it is!”
NEW microwaves are way less than $100 nowadays. Who knows what used ones are going for. A poor person can ‘make do’ with a microwave that has a dead digit on the display. The cheap ‘free phone’ that Reagan’s program furnishes is for emergencies. and some car. Those that have a car know full well that it might die any day now. Few would pass a serious safety check. And many are driving with no auto insurance, required or not.
I’ve been poor. I’ve been on foodstamps, and welfare. Suffered under Reagan and his voodoo economics. Fortunately only for less than a year. I did manage to squeeze 6 nickles out of a quarter. It was a lot easier back then than it is now. I have a hard time knowing how they do it.
‘
pignose4.0 May 8th, 2015 at 3:08 pm
Don’t get out in the real world much do ya darral…..
bpollen May 8th, 2015 at 3:24 pm
I’m sure that will be great consolation to those American children going to bed hungry.
ModeBeast May 8th, 2015 at 4:06 pm
He plans out saying dick-ish things, he is a troll.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 5:09 pm
This is true. Our poor have hot and cold running water right from the tap! Imagine that! They have central heating in the winter, and most of them probably have air conditioning in the summer. Cell phones provided free from the government are also very popular, with most poor households also having big screen TV’s and either cable or satellite service.
And our poor folks eat better than anyone else with obesity being a serious problem amongst the poor. (Don’t believe me, just pick a poor area in any city and you will see what I mean.).
And we can’t forget about health care which is also available to everyone and on top of all that government stipends for food, heating help in the winter, WIC for people with children and just plain ordinary payments called welfare. All in all, this is the best country to be in if you happen to be poor, no doubt about it.
allison1050 May 8th, 2015 at 5:22 pm
Baby Tater, you really need to get out so that you and the thief Izzaaa can get off of the major highways and byways of America and see who else lives in this once great country.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 5:59 pm
The truth hurts, right? I have been to countries where there is no indoor plumbing, a water spigot outside for everyone to use, outhouses and the like. Our poor live like kings compared to what I saw.
Hirightnow May 8th, 2015 at 6:39 pm
Kings from what era?
I’ve seen people living in tents, people who wish they had a tent, and people those tentless folk pitied!
Why SHOULDN’T our poor live a good life?
Because they’re “lazy”?
Knew many a father that had to work daily pay jobs, because the “system” was stacked against them (just TRY to get a decent job when some f*ck-up from your past is on your record), but did it anyway because they recognized their responsibilities.
.
Worked alongside more than a few people whose end goal for the day was to get a $0.99 pack of hot dogs so that their kid could eat, and maybe have something left over to launder the clothes they had to wear again, the next day.
.
No, they don’t always see their kids die from starvation, or killed by
some preventable disease…and if that’s your baseline for anything, youshould be chainsawed in half in front of your parents to teach them to work harder to instill empathy in their next try
.
But your heroes in congress work an average of, what? 150 or so days a year? With benefits the average American would suck a d*ck for?
Plus guaranteed work as a “consultant” (Paid shill) after their gravy train ride ends?
Gods, I honestly WANT you to get the government you pine for, tater; it would be the best revenge I could ever hope for.
And if my hatred of what you stand for offends you, just pretend that I don’t matter.
Not that you don’t do that anyway.
Warman1138 May 8th, 2015 at 6:51 pm
Kudos, wish I could say it that well.
Hirightnow May 8th, 2015 at 6:55 pm
Wish that I couldn’t.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 10:41 pm
My heroes in Congress? Not hardly. The only government I pine for is the kind that would finally start respecting the Constitution, the kind that espouses Federalism, which is the system our Founding Fathers set up. We do not have that anymore and that is why things are in such a mess. Massive corruption and out of control spending is now the order of the day
Hirightnow May 9th, 2015 at 12:38 am
So, as long as someone somewhere is dying of starvation, you’re OK with someone in America having only two meals every four days?
And this raises the standard how?
And as for the constitution, that document is more nuanced than you might like to believe, and don’t think those founding fathers were oblivious to that fact. “All men are created equal”…no, nobody gave a thought to slavery there! “Support the general welfare”…notice how there’s no qualifier as to whose welfare?
Your type seems to worship the founders, as long as their words are only taken in the context of the times they lived in (“Well, they really meant land owners, and men, and people with jobs!”)…but you sell them short if you think they expected things to stay the same.
Most of them were so liberal it would make Huckabee swoon.
Dwendt44 May 9th, 2015 at 12:55 am
the only reason we feed to prisoners like we do is the courts made the government do it. They do eat better than many poor folks, children included.
allison1050 May 9th, 2015 at 9:02 am
Actually the bums pretend to work now days an average of 1/3rd of the year.
allison1050 May 9th, 2015 at 6:54 am
Only you can answer your own question Tater. I wasn’t talking about other countries which I have also been to Tater, the subject are people in THIS country. There are areas of this country that don’t have running water or electricity that’s why I suggested that you needed to get off the main highways so that you could see the rest of the country.
There are areas in New Mexico and Tex-ass that have what’s known as “colonias”. There are areas like those all over the country Tater.
OldLefty May 8th, 2015 at 5:40 pm
No thanks to the GOP.
Funny he would say that because everything that our poor have is the result of Democratic and liberal policies, that the GOP want to strip.
My husband is from India. Go there and see what the GOP would have for us.
Tom Delay admitted it;
When Tom Delay went to the Marianas in 1997 with Jack Abramoff, where workers were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid rat-infested shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, he fully approved of the working and living conditions.
A Department of the Interior report found that “Chinese women were subject to
forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced
prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.”
The Texan’s salute to the owners and Abramoff’s government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News:
“You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you
represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and
leading the world in the free-market system”
Frank Murkowski, submitted a bill to extend the protection of U.S. minimum-wage labor laws to the workers in the CNMI, which passed unanimously.
The bill was then blocked by Tom DeLay in the House.
Jack Abramoff hired Ralph Reed’s Century Strategies to “send out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians;
“”The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands,” the mailer from Reed’s firm said. The Chinese workers, it added, “are exposed to the
teachings of Jesus Christ” while on the islands, and many “are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/28/AR2006052800964.html
And we are beginning to be competitive with the rest of the world in the number of poor.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 5:56 pm
That’s right, blame a Republican. But hey, let’s go to what is happening now with Obama and his buddy GE head Jeffrey Immelt, who has shipped so may jobs overseas leaving nothing for American workers to do. I went to the GE plant in New England where hundreds of people used to work in several blocks of buildings. Now, there is only a few guys on the dock to unload the freight that is made overseas. Nice, huh?
Hirightnow May 8th, 2015 at 6:25 pm
Right at the end of the runway, aren’t you?
OldLefty May 8th, 2015 at 7:02 pm
1) Republicans fought every safety net in the nation.
2) Reagan started the outsourcing craze;
It is not a coincidence that China’s progress started during
Reagan presidency. It was Reagan who started the process of deregulation that ultimately resulted in American jobs being outsourced all over the world and, a by the end of his era, there was a large increase in crappy jobs for Americans.
The old Jeffery Immelt in …..5, 4, 3, 2, 1… (because he is the only ceo you guys know who is not in bed with Republicans?)??
Meanwhile;
GE, a pioneer of outsourcing, is bringing American manufacturing back to life.
http://qz.com/32575/ge-a-pioneer-of-outsourcing-is-bringing-american-manufacturing-back-to-life/
And
“IDEALLY”, said Jack Welch in 1998, when he was chief executive of General Electric, “you’d have every plant you own on a barge to move with currencies and changes in the economy.” Reality followed vision for Mr Welch, who was a pioneer of offshoring, setting up one of the first offshore service centres in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi.
GE’s line has now reversed. Jeff Immelt, Mr Welch’s successor, calls outsourcing “yesterday’s model”. He has returned production of fridges, washing machines and heaters from China back to Kentucky.
Every change in the tax code that Obama has proposed (especially closing corporate loopholes would result in his or GE paying more taxes.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21569739-outsourcing-jobs-faraway-places-wane-will-not-solve-wests
Jake May 8th, 2015 at 8:06 pm
Correct – Reagan started the Republican war on the middle class.
Dwendt44 May 9th, 2015 at 12:49 am
“Chinese women were subject to
forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced
prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.”
The Marianas are U.S. property so the sweatshops there make ‘made in the U.S.A.’ goods for sale at Wal-mart.
Jake May 8th, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Only Republicans could be proud of creating poverty.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 10:35 pm
Fifty years of the Democrat “War on Poverty” and there still is poverty. What happened?
Jake May 8th, 2015 at 10:42 pm
Ronald Reagan’s War on the Middle Class.
Dwendt44 May 9th, 2015 at 12:46 am
It was called voodoo economics for a reason. The anti-union movement got up to speed under Reagan. Those free phones Reagan gave the poor were cheap crap that often didn’t work worth a crap and you only got 4 hours of talk time. Keep from raising the minimum wage and locking in the amount of SNAP the poor got while food prices jumped 20%.
Kevin Rudnick May 8th, 2015 at 9:35 pm
I am so glad you know what it is like to be poor in America. But from the sounds of your descriptions you have no idea. You have no idea what it is like to go hungry or have to live in your car or need to sleep on the floor of a family member to survive. I know no one that is poor that has central heating and absolutely no one that has air conditioning. You are one of the elite that have no clue what it is to be poor in America. And we are not a third world country that should be compared to other third world countries.
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 10:26 pm
Elite? Boy I wish. But let me tell you something bucko, I grew up in suburbia, but when I left my parents house I lived a long time in a buried school bus, got my own firewood, and drew my water from a spring, had 1 battery and a solar panel for lights. I ate lots of noodles and rice and if I didn’t shoot a rabbit, partridge, or some other game I didn’t have any meat. At times I have slept in my car, a 1968 fastback Ford Galaxie 500 in which I removed the rear seat so I could stretch out, and plugged my electric heater in WHEN I could find a plug on some pole somewhere. So I do know what it’s like to have little, and when I went into the cities and saw the poor folks there, all with electric, indoor plumbing ,and everything else.
But you know what, I didn’t sit on my ass my whole life and wait on some government check to tide me over. I made my own way and moved up. I have owned 2 houses, many vehicles, an RV, and still have that school bus I used to live in on my property in Vermont that is completely paid for – twice I might add. So stuff it you fool!
whatthe46 May 8th, 2015 at 10:36 pm
liar.
Rob May 9th, 2015 at 9:32 am
John see how it works!!! You get offended when someone else generalizes about your life. They make assumptions about what you “know” and “who” you are. And guess what, that is exactly how you come off with your generalizations about the poor. You don’t know these people. You see extreme depictions of poor people and apply it to all the poor. Do some people “game” the system and live off the govt. Of course they do, but do you actually think this makes up the majority of our poor? If so, I think your view is a little short sighted. We get it there are people out there that take advantage of our system we all know it. But continuing to lump all of the poor as “takers” does nothing to help solve the problem and only makes you come off as trying to be morally superior because of your “path” in life. C”mon, don’t perpetuate the easy stereotypes be part of the solution.
Dwendt44 May 11th, 2015 at 12:20 pm
And yet, the rich and well off ones that take advantage of the ‘system’ are ignored totally.
StoneyCurtisll May 9th, 2015 at 12:02 pm
I got to ask…
That 68 fastback Ford Galaxie 500..
Got a 390 or a 289 under the hood?
StoneyCurtisll May 9th, 2015 at 12:06 pm
I have to admit…
You are doing better than I am…
You got one more school bus than I ever imagined owning…;)
StoneyCurtisll May 9th, 2015 at 11:51 am
You ought to know…
By your own admissions, you spend up to 14 days on the road tryin to make a buck..
And you are still poor…(god bless ya for tryin)
I bet you dont have anything more than the ‘cell phone, big TV, hot n cold running water, cable/satellite, indoor plumbing, health care, I bet ya even got a flush toilet..
You aint no better off than them poor folks who you say are livin high on the hog.
Come on…
Gina May 9th, 2015 at 2:54 pm
You seem to be here for us to know what it means to lie shamelessly on the thread.
allison1050 May 8th, 2015 at 5:20 pm
So sez the thief.
allison1050 May 8th, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Such an apt description! 😉
tracey marie May 8th, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Hi my friend
allison1050 May 9th, 2015 at 6:54 am
Hi doll! 😉
Warman1138 May 8th, 2015 at 6:47 pm
I grew up in a tar/asphalt sheet sided house with no running water, just a well pump. An outhouse in the back and a coal/wood pot bellied stove…….and it SUCKED! ” Our poor are somewhat the envy of the world ” Does anybody on the hill even realize how STUPID that sounds?
Hirightnow May 8th, 2015 at 6:57 pm
{raises hand}
John Tarter May 8th, 2015 at 10:14 pm
Living like that is the exception and you know it. Most of the poor in this country have hot and cold water right from the tap, and just about all the other modern conveniences. And lets not forget the government handouts either. Don’t want to be poor? Get off your butt and make a success of your life. I bet you are not living like that anymore, right?
Dwendt44 May 9th, 2015 at 12:42 am
Ya that’ll work. just direct those uneducated or under educated poor to some mythical jobs. Where are they? Why overseas in a sweatshop country that pays $2 a day, if that.
Warman1138 May 9th, 2015 at 6:51 am
You’re not very smart, are you?
William May 9th, 2015 at 11:56 am
And lets not forget the government handouts either
Yeah, lets not forget that.
Dwendt44 May 11th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
And the subsidy for the oil companies is about that large as well.
nola878 May 8th, 2015 at 7:19 pm
If American poor have it so f*cking great, then I suggest that Issa and all others who feel the same should try living poor for a month.
Let’s see what they have to say after that.
Hirightnow May 8th, 2015 at 7:41 pm
Wouldn’t work.
I’ve seen it and I’ve seen it; “I’m going to live on food stamps for a month, just like the poor do!”.
But in the end?
They know they’re going to have money in the bank, and the added bonus of publicity.
Dwendt44 May 9th, 2015 at 12:39 am
They either can’t do it for the whole month or they cheat. Most well heeled braggarts have a full pantry before they start.
Hirightnow May 9th, 2015 at 12:43 am
“Well, I had to take my lawyer out to dinner, and there was this thing I had to attend, because I have to keep abreast of things in D.C., and we kinda let my kids take us to Sardi’s, because it was their kid’s 4th birthday….”
whatthe46 May 9th, 2015 at 1:31 am
well, you asked. only this celebrity does care. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/10/gwyneth-paltrow-food-stamp_n_7043010.html
StoneyCurtisll May 9th, 2015 at 11:32 am
High Five~!
Foundryman May 8th, 2015 at 11:06 pm
Our poor should have it better than others in the world. After all, this is America, you know..the greatest country in the world? Right wing nutbags like Issa won’t be happy until they bring America down to a third world country.
liberalMD May 9th, 2015 at 1:01 am
If the poor in the California 49th Congressional District were a little richer they would be able to get to the polls to vote him out of office.
fahvel May 9th, 2015 at 2:50 am
not richer – if they cared, maybe. but the excuse of not getting to the polls is lame if they really want to ditch the bastard.
Nathaniel King May 9th, 2015 at 1:05 am
Poor people are important, because without them, he’s no longer rich.
Gadea May 10th, 2015 at 12:41 am
Technology is erasing jobs that put food on the table and paid the mortgage.
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 1:30 am
The Rich Get Richer – By Mike Whitney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41781.htm
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 1:34 am
Wage Crisis – The USA’s new underclass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_3zmBUCVcI
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 1:36 am
Arkansas: The Worst Place to Rent in America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G2Pk2JZP-E
StoneyCurtisll May 9th, 2015 at 11:30 am
And Huckabee wants us to marvel in his glory of being the former Governor if this hell hole of a state.
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 1:59 am
Governments Lie: Howard Zinn on Class Warfare, Immigration, Justice, Film and History (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ISLW0sZH0
fahvel May 9th, 2015 at 2:48 am
it’s what defines govt and politicians. Lie in order to gain power and control and then keep lying.
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 2:21 am
He cannot understand, does not want to know, is not interested in finding out. There are people that live on the proceeds of a garbage dump, while others bask in pools of obscene luxury. He doesn’t care, why should he, he eats everyday.
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 2:21 am
He cannot understand, does not want to know, is not interested in finding out. There are people that live on the proceeds of a garbage dump, while others bask in pools of obscene luxury. He doesn’t care, why should he, he eats everyday.
Manufactuers make products that have a short life expectancy, that will break, that will be obsolete almost before they are on the store shelves, so that they can make more and more $$$. The Iphone 5 around the corner is the Iphone 6 and so on.
Chinese slaves make the Apple products, under conditions that so bad, that nets have to be placed around the workers buildings, to catch them when they try to end their misery by killing themselves. But still customers flock to Apple stores to buy the latest product. Walmart has slaves in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Mexico working for a pittance, living out of shacks with black plastic garbage sheets for windows, because they do not want to pay Americans a living wage. NYC is being converted into a rich person’s Disneyworld, while kicking out those without unlimited amounts of cash. The computer programmers thought they were safe, and it was just those uneducated, unwashed, Americans employed in factories that were finding themselves living on the edge of nowhere. But the CP’s quickly found out, that India had an entire army of computer people that could step into their shoes at the drop of a hat.
In the era of the internet, there are really no boundaries, no limits to whose job can be erased.
Rico Bastante May 9th, 2015 at 10:20 am
Exactly why I didn’t buy any model of the iPhone and bought Motorola instead. I’m also not wealthy nor a Republican, but I do agree with Issa in this case. The poor in the USA are the envy of the world (with the possible exception of Scandinavian countries) relatively speaking, compared to the poor in the Third World countries. Utah gives away housing to the homeless. Seattle has built many beautiful brand new low income apartment buildings. Medical insurance/health care is available. Food. Electronics. Internet. Clean water. Free clothing when needed. Issa did not start out wealthy either. He opened up his business and made it happen. Resources are available for low to no income people. We should be grateful, not hostile while improving up on things as a society and as individuals.
labman57 May 9th, 2015 at 9:22 am
Does it really surprise anybody that self-serving, empathy-devoid Republicans choose to set the “acceptable standard of living” bar just above that experienced by a poverty-stricken family living in a ‘4th world’ nation?
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 4:12 pm
America’s Poor – Envy of The World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Q_1RiShtI
Gadea May 9th, 2015 at 4:42 pm
Dark Days by Marc Singer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mwp1xHzzKc
Life in the subway tunnels.
Kevin Adams May 9th, 2015 at 9:51 pm
Anyone who has visited 2nd/3rd world countries and seen the grind that their poor go through just to survive would understand his comments. Those countries have no safety net. If you don’t work, you don’t live. If you’re born into that, you have the tiniest fraction of a chance to get out. In America all you have to do is get good grades, don’t get arrested, and maybe join the military. So yes, his comments are correct. Our ‘poor’ have 5 kids, IPhones and apartments. There are obviously exceptions, but the bottom line is this country is soft – bunch of babies complaining about crap they think they’re entitled to just for being American.
harrykuheim May 9th, 2015 at 10:08 pm
He is exactly right…the World’s poor would give anything … take any risk… to get here…what would it take for you to try and float on anything to get out of Cuba or North Africa?… Or cross a Desert from Mexico, Guatemala, or Obama’s favorite Honduras? You Libs are so ignorant it’s laughable.