Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) says many Americans are lower-income because they spend every darn penny

[iluvtennis]

@JoyAnnReid, 54m54 minutes ago

Lower income people indeed spend every penny they have ... on housing, food and clothes for them and their children to wear. Do they maybe squeeze in a movie or a beer when they can scrape together the extra money? Nah, that cool stuff is for rich people...

Senator @ChuckGrassley (R-Iowa) says millions of Americans are lower-income because they “are just spending every darn penny they have whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

Link to tweet

[sheshe2]

1. Oh!

Lookie! Another out of touch asshole.

#$%^&*(I*$%^&*(*&^T%!!!!!!

[underpants]

2. I just love how Republicans think they can just engineer behavior

but remember they don't want Gubmint telling anyone (White people) what to do.

[COLGATE4]

3. I'm amazed that this asshole said

"movies" instead of "talkies"

[iluvtennis]

5. LOL, how apropos.

[JDC]

54. To be fair, he stills goes to the apothecary for his head throb elixir

[COLGATE4]

56. I thought he still gets bled by leeches.

[salin]

4. Again? I am pretty sure he has said crap like this before.

He's an idiot.

[CharleyDog]

33. it's the Republican point of view. Poor people just want free stuff (like healthcare)

Paul Ryan said children should be ashamed of getting free school lunches. Romney famously said poor people are too lazy to care for themselves.

This justifies them restricting health care and cutting "entitlements." Poor people don't need these things, they should just enjoy eating air and working two jobs and not ask for handouts, you lazy sluts.

Hate the poor and the immigrant. Even Jesus only loves the rich these days, doncha know.

(ps. Nice how Grassley got a dig on "women" they are some kind of chattel to be bought. Hating women is always a bonus)

[salin]

48. Good points. Just want add the Ryan hypocrisy - given that he benefited

from such programs to be able to go to college, and to not have his family sink into poverty after his father passed, due the the benefits of social security.

[riversedge]

51. That was my immediate thought as I read it. It was very similiar comment awhile back.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. You can not fix this Stupid Person.

[krispos42]

7. It's almost like there's a certain minimum of money a person needs to spend a year...

...to maintain some semblance of civilized life. And the closer you are to that minimum, the bigger percentage of your income is spend making it.

Wow, what an idea.

It's like these Republicans think that I should spend 40% of my income on housing regardless of how little I make!

[democratisphere]

8. Grassley is an old fart and completely out of touch with the realities

of everyday life. Most people are pinching pennies and having to spend every one they have in order to cover the cost of merely existing in life.

[gratuitous]

11. I'd love to see some follow up

"Sen. Grassley, what do you think is the average income for American citizens? What do you think is the median income? What does a box of Cheerios cost? How much should a family of four spend on monthly rent? What is the average monthly rent in Des Moines? Based on the foregoing answers (all of which are appallingly wrong, by the way), why should anyone listen to a goddam thing you say?"

[democratisphere]

32. When this country is ruled by millionaires and billionaires subsidized by $1.4 trillion

in additional debt and deficit tax cuts, how can we expect them to relate to the masses pinching pennies. If they can not relate to their constituents, they should not hold a political office.

[a kennedy]

29. Yes, and talk about the stereotype of "welfare queen".....

[democratisphere]

37. We now have welfare for the wealthiest in the form of tax cuts

subsidized by more debt.

[Volaris]

49. And all he does is sit around in the Senate chamber, being wrong about shit,

And for this he gets paid like a quarter million dollars a year.

You or I could do THAT job, and be just as skilled at it, and charge ourselves much less for our effort.

[democratisphere]

50. redumbliCON Senators and Representatives would be broke if they

were paid based on their accomplishments. Do nothing is putting it mildly. Maybe they should be charged for taking up space and using water.

[Volaris]

52. Doing NO harm would be an improvement.

I could see paying them for sitting down and keeping their fucking mouths shut.
But if there is a Rich Man's Prick out somewhere, you can bet next year's raise that a Republicans mouth will be open...

[procon]

9. Out of touch with at least half the country.

What a clueless old fool, does he not underdtand that a single mom has no interest in buying women? Does he really think a poor family would risk losing their home or getting the utilities shutoff because movies and booze was more important than their family?

He needs to spend a week with a poor working class family to see where their money is spent; go live a day in their shoes, get his damn facts straight or shut the hell up!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. numbers

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[asiliveandbreathe]

12. What an arse..and the Idiots Out Wandering Around who keep voting for the arse..n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

13. You old relic of an era that won't go quietly.

[SallyHemmings]

14. Maybe Grassley should join the ranks of the underemployed

Far too many people works 40 plus hours a week and can barely afford the basics.

[smirkymonkey]

15. He can't take a dirt nap soon enough as far as I am concerned.

This old relic is representative of the worst of the republican party - elitist, out-of-touch, greedy and completely contemptuous of the average American worker. His attitude is insulting and repulsive. How someone like this manages to stay in office is just a mystery to me.

[geardaddy]

16. Fuck his old Iowegian ass.

Fucking POS!

[Takket]

17. he thinks that the money you SPEND is "income"????????????????

[Ms. Toad]

23. Thank you!

Why did it take 17 responses before someone pointed out his idiotic logic. What you spend has NOTHING to do with INCOME.

[SWBTATTReg]

18. Shaking my head and thinking just how pathetic can a person be, especially w/ someone ...

who is supposedly on top of things and privy to all kinds of economic facts being delivered to the Congress for various purposes. King got knocked down a few pegs, it's Grassley's turn. What is it about Iowa? I know friends that live in Iowa (Des Moines) and I never heard of this kind of talk from them like this.

[DallasNE]

19. Grassley Doesn't Even Make Sense

Your income level is not determined by your spending habits. Is he now senile? He has certainly lost reasoning ability.

[NRaleighLiberal]

20. Another for the republican fucking asshole hall of fame

[bdamomma]

21. They have such disdain

for those of us who call ourselves Middle class (we keep the country going), Grassley should STFU, the rich are stealing from us, and they think we are in the wrong. Fuck that, they are the ones who squeezed the shit out of hard working Americans.

Keep pushing in history there were those moments when the poor went after the rich.

[cstanleytech]

22. He is completely out of touch with reality.

[marieo1]

24. Lower income rights

Grassley is and always has been a real zero. He is another one just like McConnell - they both should just go home. Neither one of them can say anything intelligent. My question is: how does he know how lower income spend their money? I'm sure he's never had to worry about money since the day he was born. Go home Grassley!! Joy Reid is one brilliant lady!!

[quaker bill]

25. Lower income has nothing to do with spending

It defines as not getting paid very much. You could be saving every nickel and still be lower income. Of course, even people who make little want a roof over their head and dinner on the table.

They have no clue and avoid anything that even seems like empathy.

[MarcA]

26. Says the elitist with the platinum income, insurance and pension paid by taxpayers.

He and his kind are the truly useless eaters and breathers.

[guillaumeb]

27. Reagan said essentially the same thing.

Meanwhile, farmer Grassley collects his own form of welfare, but in deference to his rich white feelings they do not call it welfare.

[BobTheSubgenius]

28. You senile, arrogant, out-of-touch Republican (sorry, repeating myself) A-hole!

I'm not saying that this is the Gold Coast, or Manhattan, but a 1-BR self-contained suite here is about $1200. You have to NET $14,000 just to pay your rent.

I went shopping today, and Ambrosia apples cost about $1.25 each.

[griloco]

30. DAOWP is he...

Dumb Ass Old White People

[Duppers]

31. Another shitforbrains repug.

[Stonepounder]

34. Cart, meet horse. Horse meet cart.

Directions:

1. IMPORTANT: The horse goes first and the cart follows behind. If you try and get the cart to go first, it won't work!

[CharleyDog]

35. Just wondering, what was Grassley's net worth when he started in the Senate and

what is it now? Let's see your tax returns, bucko.

[iluvtennis]

36. It's very difficult not to consume your entire paycheck. High housing, high food costs,high utility

bills, high daycare costs (I'm a single mom), high cable bills, high car insurance bills, high deductions for medical/dental/vision from paychecks.

It costs over $70 (here in CA) for me to take my 2 girls to the movie theater (tickets, food, drinks)

Grassley is so OUT OF TOUCH with the average American

[Haggis for Breakfast]

38. Grassley is 85 years old.

Yet, Iowa re-elected him last year for another SIX years. He will be 91 when his current term expires.

He has NO idea what the average income is, what the average family budget looks like, what a pound of ground beef/quart of milk/gallon of gas costs. No one so out of touch should ever be placed in a position of passing laws about the lives of people.

But, IOWA sent him back to the Senate to do just that. And this is also one of the old white, entitled, sexist, racist, fossils that gave us Schlitz Kavanaugh. Thanks, Chuck. Fuck you, Iowa.

[iluvtennis]

40. Ditto.

[Botany]

39. A lot of people don't get $1,500 per day from ....

... Medical, Pharma, and Insurance companies.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

41. Millions of Americans are lower-income because.....

Grassley's billionaire friends keep low-income people under their thumb so they can be used up 'till they die.

Without a degree of excess income, poor people cannot afford to advance themselves with better education, or even a bus ticket and some good clothes to wear for a job interview. I've known a lot of folks stuck in that hell-hole for their entire life.

Keeping millions of people in this rut is how they have become billionaires.

It's also how hundreds of billionaires can afford to bankroll assholes like Grassley......

[bobbieinok]

42. He ran his 1st Senate campaign (70s?) against the absurd prices the Pentagon paid for screwdrivers

He'd hold up a $300 screwdriver the Pentagon had bought. And in the other hand the same screwdriver he bought for $5 at the corner hardware store in his IA home town.

My now ex listened to his debate from another room. He said Grassley would win because he sounded like Will Rogers. Just a good, downhome boy.

During that election I heard some retired farmers at the local coffee-shop discussing the candidates. Their consensus--Culver had gotten an expensive haircut. He obviously had too much free time on his hands, wouldn't work hard for IA.

In the 90s (after Newt created the new, improved GOP) I was shocked to see a TV clip of Grassley playing his persona as part of Newt's GOP. It was totally unlike anything I had ever seen of him before.

Note--Grassley won the GOP primary because the guy who was a 'sure thing' used his credit card to pay for some 'escort services'. Newspaper reporters actually investigated candidates in 'the olden days'!!

[fascisthunter]

43. You Mean We aren't Whoring Ourselves Out Like You Did

... you loser. You might have money, but You can't escape a conscience, unless you are partially brain-dead like most sociopaths. Lacking.

[Evolve Dammit]

44. Clueless and out of touch

Like so many of the "establishment" GOP, and to be fair, some of the "Blue Dog", "moderate" Dems. When you're as rich as they are, you can't relate. When you can't or don't try to relate, you distance yourself to the average person's plight and hinder any progress we need to address our nation's problems. Some Dems are the equivalent of the former GOP at this point. I welcome the new blood as the Dem party needs a transfusion.

[YOHABLO]

45. So this is Reid responding to a Grassley tweet or the other way around?

Of course the old Republican screwball is out of touch with reality... but then what's to be expected?

[Mabel]

46. If the rich keep painting the poor as evil and corrupt

then it's easier to paint themselves as righteous so the masses don't question their greed.

[iluvtennis]

55. Exactly. Welcome to DU Mabel.

[Mabel]

57. Thank you !!!!

[IronLionZion]

47. Time for Iowa to retire Chuck Grassley

he needs to spend more time with his family

[brettdale]

53. woman and booze

The rest i threw away.