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Rand Paul To Unemployed Americans: Suck It Up, Get off Your Ass, and Get a Job

For people who are allegedly some of the smartest people in the country, politicians sure do say some dumb things:

In an interview with WVLK-AM in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, Paul told host Sue Wylie he supported the Republican filibuster last week of more than $100 billion in emergency spending that includes extended jobless benefits. Paul said the bill must be paid before the extension is voted into law — and if that can’t happen, it’s time for America’s unemployed to face facts and stop holding out for jobs similar to the ones they’ve lost.

“As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that’s less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again,” he said. “Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen.”

Really?

REALLLLY, Rand Paul?

Of course the fucked up thing is that conservatives like Rand Paul actually believe this sort of crap. In their eyes there are no poor, just people who make bad financial decisions, the unemployed are just too lazy to get a job, and businesses are infallible. After all they would nevercut corners or break the law to make a profit, right?

There’s a certain level dogmatism in conservatism thought that involves a combination of ignorance and hubris. To simplify the current unemployment situation in this country as people who are unemployed are too lazy and/or unwilling to go back to work exemplifies this. People who haven’t been able to support their families for a year aren’t turning up their noses at jobs so they can continue to live the ghetto fabulously life style on the dole. Living off of unemployment and welfare carries with it an undeniable level of shame because you’re unable to provide for your family, struggling paycheck to paycheck on a minuscule pittance that the government gives you every month. Always living in fear of what you’ll do when the checks stop coming.

But aside from his complete ignorance on poverty, having been raised in the affluent lifestlye afforded only to the son of a multi millionaire’s politician, Paul misses an even clearer and undeniably obvious point. Unemployment IS the ultimate pay cut. Because no matter how much less hypotetical job A that only exist in Paul’s mind pays you, its still a lot more than zero.