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Just saw clip of Sec. Of Commerce. Wilbur Ross's self-destructive and totally ignorant comment about Federal workers going to food banks vs "taking out a loan"
Most of these people probably have credit issues--going pay check to pay check--
He thinks that because they are Federal workers they should have "no problem" getting a loan to replace their missing salaries from an FDIC insured bank...
For one thing--many of them are NOT Federal employees who are suffering but contract workers for companies doing business with the Federal entities affected...like cafeterias works in government buildings and custodial workers--
The total gap in his understanding of their situation is wider than from the Earth to the Moon...
As one MSNBC comment from Michael Steele, former RNC head, illustrated--
It was akin to Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" referring to French peasants who had no bread...
And we know how that ended...
(And yes I understand there is now historical support to suggest she did NOT say that--but by this time the truth doesn't matter...the comment captures the distain and separation the French aristocrats felt toward peasants and working class French before the Revolution...
Much as Ross's likely will be enshrined and pulled out multiple times for the GOP going forward...
Anyone who allowed Ross to go before cameras and immortalized that GOP/uber wealthy/no empathy and know-nothing attitude needs to be fired...simple as an object lesson for how stupidity is rewarded in the GOP
Ross needs to be fired but for not just that totally suicidal comment...
And I am certainly no GOP supporter-but anyone can see a stupid mistake when it is presented like that!
These people--and by that I include the head of the Heritage Foundation whose husband works for a "think tank" and is furloughed, Lara Trump, and others within the WH cabal--who are so wealthy they have never likely known what it was to be on the edge of financial ruin by missing a few pay checks should just be beaten with wet bamboo with their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling on rice grains for a couple of hours..
Torture--sure--
But that is likely the ONLY way to make a dent in their super thick hides and psyches...
Certainly interviews like the one with the crying employee of the Smithsonian who has worked there 17 years and is totally afraid of losing his house won't have any impact...
They just don't get "it"
They have NO empathy for working class people
And their own comments should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump's campaign mantras about how he was a 'populist" candidate were so far off the mark they should have been "red" flags of his lies...
Unfortunately propaganda speaks louder than truth in some cases...
But these video clips will last as long as there is electricity and equipment to use them as ammunition...
Great work GOP--
You are really selling your story...just not in the way you might imagine or your media people might tell you
Billionaire Ross just can't understand the plight of the folks who live paycheck to paycheck. They are probably already maxed out on their credit cards and payday loans.
People should not have to get a loan to buy food. This is what food banks are for. Personally I think anyone who recently got laid off or furloughed should eligible for temporary emergency food stamps.
What would be even better is if people would prepare for a few months of no pay check by having enough in a savings account (equal to their regular salary) to get them through at least 3 months and store up some food.
People should not have to get a loan to buy food. This is what food banks are for. Personally I think anyone who recently got laid off or furloughed should eligible for temporary emergency food stamps.
The food stamp program is out of money due to the shutdown.
It was akin to Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" referring to French peasants who had no bread...
And we know how that ended...
(And yes I understand there is now historical support to suggest she did NOT say that--but by this time the truth doesn't matter...the comment captures the distain and separation the French aristocrats felt toward peasants and working class French before the Revolution...
That quote came from the book "Confessions" which Rousseau wrote when Marie Antoinette was 10 years old and living in Austria.
In the context of the book, the quote was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" and it wasn't even used in disdain, but as an example of limousine liberal thinking on how to solve a food crisis, which was an order to the bakers of Paris to sell brioche and other fancy bread/pastries at the same price as cheap bread, thus "solving" the bread shortage issue. Such royal decrees did happen prior to the Revolution, because they refused to acknowledge the various forces that had resulted in the disincentivizing of food production in France, particular in Paris.
Ross may indeed be tone deaf, but neither his comments nor history of the phrase "let them eat brioche" have anything to do with Marie Antoinette or even royal decrees on how to make food shortages worse by disincentivizing the production/sale of food, as all prices ceilings during crisis seem to do.
Had Ross ordered all of the creditors to whom the furloughed owe money simply pause the repayment schedules or forego the debts entirely or at a fraction of the original amount, then it would be closer to the theme in "Confessions" and the actual policies of the King pre-Bastille Day.
If you want something closer to the real Marie Antoinette, then finding someone to defend The State on the basis of their divine right to rule us, because some people rule and most others are ruled...that would get you closer to the actual person. Any number of the die hard statists around here make a much better Marie Antoinette parallel than some guy suggesting a short term loan to cover a deferred payment period.
Yes I saw the video. What an utter disregard for Americans facing personal financial crises. The very epitome of callousness.
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Wilbur Ross says unpaid federal workers shouldn't need food banks, they can just get a loan
