“Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves. Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”I know this is the old self-reliance pitch that people should take care of themselves, but do we really want to see emanciated homeless people in the streets, their corpses piling up in dark alleys? The mentally ill can barely comb their hair, much less hold a job. Bachmann’s vision for America is bleak at best.
While Bachmann is trying to claim that government shouldn’t be giving handouts to people who won’t work, her argument simply sounds mean-spirited. When the unemployment rate is 9%, it isn’t a question of wanting to work or not, it is a question of finding work.
Her argument becomes a case against unemployment compensation, soup kitchens and food banks. I don’t think that is what Bachmann wants.
Her comments don’t square up well with Jesus either. Jesus didn’t force work out of the people — he handed out loaves of bread and fish.
Bachmann might be taking up the platform of comedian-turned-perennial-candidate Pat Paulsen Paulsen, who ran in nearly every presidential election from 1968 until 1996. One of his popular planks was to end poverty by shooting “400 beggars a week.” Bachmann just wants to starve them.
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