"My first thought was: hey, I’m glad he recognizes the existence of and need for the safety net," former Obama administration economist Jared Bernstein wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "My second thought was … um … he’s gonna shred it" through his proposed spending restraint."
(See full article at the Christian Science Monitor here.)
From a disability advocate's perspective the problem with Romney's comment isn't merely that it stands for 5 & dime, run of the mill hypocrisy, it's that he imagines that the poor are a static group. When I first heard the interview with Soledad O'Brien I thought of Jesus' assertion: "The poor ye will always have with ye, but…"
I also thought about the early history of Mormonism. Long before Utah became a state the Mormons were progressive, viewing capitalism and its propensity for reducing the individual to commodified instrumentality as being antithetical to the practice of Christianity. In their terrific book A History of Utah Radiaclism John McCormick and John Sillito discuss, among other things, how impending statehood for Utah changed the progressive vision of Mormonism, ultimately leading to a conversion to the acquisition of smackeroos above all else. As Mitt knows, it's easy to shrug off the poor. They don't work hard enough.
But Mitt's idea that there's a social safety net for the poor is wrong. It's already been shredded and what interests me is his casual tone–you see, in his mind he imagines that if only the poor would work a little harder and dress a little better they'd be in Salt Lake City. Under the veneer, Mitt is a very scary man.
Planet of the Blind 