Jim Newell | Gawker
Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert, a terribly silly person best known for his “terror babies” warning, has devised an ingenious plan to eliminate welfare forever! Recipients can promise to never joins the welfare rolls again, in exchange for some farmland.
Welfare, which Gohmert sees as a bigger problem than the fact that our economy no longer creates jobs, has apparently thrown in the towel on capitalism and simply wants a return to 40 Acres and a Mule, but with more of a Trail of Tears bite:
Gohmert: We have people on welfare and I know there’s some that just don’t wanna work, but there’s some that do. How ’bout if instead of the welfare, we give ’em an alternative. We’ll give you so many acres that can provide land where you can live off of it, make a living and we’ll give you seed money to start, but you have to sign an agreement that you’ll never accept welfare again. How ’bout that? We got plenty of land.
Who’s got plenty of land? The government? The government will give away public land to unemployed people making use of the social safety net while the economy is actual shit? Or will the government purchase land? That would be expensive! Because there is not, really, “plenty of land” for the taking. This is why families no longer farm.
It’s probably better to just give people some food money until jobs exist, but apparently the government is losing its interest in this. So why not listen to Gohmert, if there’s no other choice? Farms, forced relocation, whatever. We’ll go along with anything.
[via Adam Serwer]
The original version of the story appears here: http://gawker.com/5651369/congressman-wants-welfare-replaced-with-40-acres-and-a-mule
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