Blaming it on the Blacks.

Instead of letting Lindsey Graham prattle on and on about the “sleazy” deals that were made to provide affordable health care for tens of millions of people or very seriously complain about how the legislative process is a “joke,” I would much rather someone ask the good Senator from South Carolina what he meant by the following:

“Throughout the nation there are going to be thousands more people enrolled in Medicaid and every state except one is going to have to come up with matching money. I have 12 percent unemployment in South Carolina. My state’s on its knees. I have 31 percent African-American population in South Carolina. …

… We’ve got it tough. We’re on our knees. 12 percent of our people are unemployed and 31 percent of our people are black.

… My state, with 30 percent African-American citizens, a lot of low income people in South Carolina is going to cost my state a billion dollars, that’s the same old stuff that I object to.”

Here’s a segment on Graham’s, um, analysis from “The Rachel Maddow Show” last night:

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Maybe, as Matt Yglesias pointed out, Graham seems to believe “some that all black people are poor, only black people are eligible for Medicaid, all poor people are black, or something.” Or “let’s just say that to be charitable about it, he’s really stupid and I can also think up some less charitable explanations.”

Or maybe he doesn’t care about white people.

Either way, someone should really try to find out what he meant.

Joel

Joel Anderson —blackink —  writes about sports, politics, crime, courts, and other issues far beyond his competence at BuzzFeed. He has worked at media outlets in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Atlanta and contributed to a number of publications, including The Root and The American Prospect, among many others.
  • Lindsay Graham is a lazy American who is talking to other lazy Americans who are convinced that only black people in America can be poor. And no he doesn’t care about poor white people but why should he? Everyone knows they don’t exist!

    Appalachia be damned!

    It gives them comfort to believe such myths.

  • He’s doing two different things at the same time:

    1) taking the moral low ground by complaining that South Carolina is excessively burdened by poorer black people

    2) attempting to take the moral high ground by complaining that Democrats are being racist against him, because his state is 31% black. Which is supposed to make him the equivalent of a black leader.

    These white Southern Republicans really love to see themselves as victims of racial discrimination. It’s weird and pathological. I honestly think Graham had worked himself up into a state of outraged martyrdom by the time he made that comment.

  • Ladyfresh

    huzzah to our post racial society!

  • An argument like Sen. Graham’s only makes sense to voters who are more strongly motivated to withhold a good from undesirables than to provide one to themselves. Unfortunately, this attitude is all too common.

  • Aisha

    This reminds me of the guy on NPR who was at one of those large rural free clinics because he had no insurance and both his children were on Medicaid. He said that he didn’t like the health reform because it would take from the Whites and give it to the Blacks and Hispanics( he probably said Mexicans).

  • This is just disturbing on so many levels. Not that I’m surprised someone would say something like this, but I’m shocked that he said it on the Senate floor and then later said it again on the Today show. Was he not criticized enough the first time to keep him from repeating himself?