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.