Courtesy of HuffPo:
Warren keyed in on what Ryan recently dubbed as an "inner-city" culture of "men not working."
She began by quoting comments that Ryan made on a conservative radio show last month, stating, "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with."
Warren took aim at his view of the unemployed. "Paul Ryan looks around, sees three unemployed workers for every job opening in America, and blames the people who can't find a job," she said. "In 2008, this economy crashed, wiping out millions of jobs."
She went on, "Paul Ryan says don't blame Wall Street: the guys who made billions of dollars cheating American families; don't blame decades of deregulation that took the cops off the beat while the big banks looted the American economy. Don't blame the Republican Secretary of the Treasury, and the Republican president who set in motion a no-strings-attached bailout for the biggest banks. Nope. Paul Ryan says keep the monies flowing to the powerful corporations, keep their huge tax breaks, keep the special deals for the too-big-to-fail banks and put the blame on hardworking, play-by-the-rules Americans who lost their jobs."
"That may be Paul Ryan's vision of how America works, but that is not our vision of this great country," she said.
You know I don't usually enjoy lopsided fights, but I would pony up big buck to sit in the audience and watch Elizabeth Warren chop Paul Ryan into bite sized bits in a debate.
It would be like watching Richard Dawkins debating science with Sarah Palin. Or essentially ANYBODY debating science with Sarah Palin.
I really like the way that Senator Warren speaks. She has such an impressive mastery of the facts.
It makes it almost impossible for me not to have my new favorite non-sexual fantasy about two women, the Hillary Clinton/Elizabeth Warren 2016 ticket.
How about ANYBODY debating anything with Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm missing something. The fact that Wall Street and bankers are making the economy tough in no way says that all people at the bottom want to work. I'm not saying ther eis a "culture of poverty,", but I don't see Elizabeth directly address the straw man she set up.
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of people "at the bottom" want to work. They may not love working (just like the vast majority of all people), but they want to support themselves and their families.
DeleteFunny you should mention "straw man" Anonymous 9:25 AM. You are suggesting that she claimed, "all people at the bottom want to work." She didn't. Play the video again, and post the mm:ss where you think she did.
DeleteI like Warren and I dislike Ryan, but in this case they’re both telling the truth… about completely different people.
DeleteShe implied that all people want to work and it's Wall Street and banks that are to blame. I agree with her the Wall Street and banks have gotten away with horrendous things - perhaps even crimes, and defintely things that should be crime. I don't go along with Ryan's Culture of Poverty completely. But the fact that Wall Street and the banks rig things may explain why many people who want to work can't find jobs, but doesn't address whether there is a culture that doesn't want to work - unless you assume everyone wants to work, which I don't.
DeleteThere's a difference between people not wanting to work and a CULTURE that doesn't want to work.
DeleteCan't you see the difference?
Anonymous 11:46 AM wrote: She implied that all people want to work…
DeleteTime in the video (mm:ss) in the video where she does that, please—as previously requested.
DeleteYes I can. Can you see that focusing on Wall Street and Banks as opposition to Culture of Poverty is talking apples and oranges
The only culture I see that doesn't want to work is the one made up of trust fund layabouts living off daddy's (or granddaddy's) money.
DeleteBut seriously...
There is no Culture of Poverty. It's a myth that, along with "The American Dream," blames the entire "class" of poor people for being poor. If only they worked harder, they wouldn't be poor, but they obviously don't want to work harder (or at all). It doesn't acknowledge the fact that poor people often work just as hard, if not harder than people with money. It also doesn't acknowledge the many roadblocks, prejudices, and simple impossibilities that stand in the way of moving up the economic ladder. Are there poor people who are lazy? Of course! But there's no such thing as a "culture" that has laziness as one of it's core beliefs.
The whole thing smack of the worst kind of classism.
Also am very impressed by her, but think she didn't go back far enough to lay blame for reasons so many have no job. The loss of jobs didn't start when the economy tanked in 2008. The trouble started with NAFTA and any and all other laws that encourage American companies to move jobs off shore. This country no longer produces much of anything and it is very frightening to know that not only are there now so many fewer jobs, but we no longer produce much of what we need and it started way before the recent downturn and will continue even as people get employed -- well, under-employed in low paying jobs with no future for growth, for the most part.
ReplyDeleteThank you Thank you Thank you.
DeleteIt all began with NAFTA.
"That great big sucking sound!"
DeletePaul Ryan is always described as the gop budget wonk. That just goes to show how pathetic the republican party has become. He never says anything based on real facts. He should be sent back to driving a weinermobile.
ReplyDeleteYes, he's an idiot. I loved the VP debate. Joe Biden wiped the floor with him.
DeleteI'm going to use my Glock. To blow your balls off
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bob-quast-got-balls-glock
Well, to be fair, most anything looks more intelligent when placed aside Ryan.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans blocked her for head of Consumer Protection and instead she's a US Senator with a trajectory heading toward 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
ReplyDeleteAcutally, "Has been graduated," "was graduated from" are the preferred constructions in the Associated Press Style Book.
ReplyDelete+ 1,000
DeleteSeems to me that many of the other senators should take lessons from Elizabeth Warren. She takes her job very seriously. Thank you, Ms. Warren.
ReplyDeleteEverytime I see Paul Ryan's name, the image of him sitting on a bench holding a dumbell comes to mind. The one with the backward baseball cap. (OT Did you hear they're killing off the cartoon "Archie"?)
ReplyDeleteLiz Warren has an amazing way with words and backs up her position with facts. Sarah Palin? Wave a buck and she'll say anything you want.
Unemployment INSURANCE.
ReplyDeleteRather than pay you a little bit more, your employer takes part of your wages and pays into what's called "Unemployment INSURANCE".
When a WORKER gets laid off, this INSURANCE kicks in to bide one over until they find a new job.
'Unemployment benefits' is NOT some rich guy carrying the dead-weight of people who don't want to work - it is quite the opposite - it is the lazy bastard rich guy (that is "too wealthy to have to work") NOT carrying the people who do all the work - because those workers had UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.
THAT THEIR OWN WAGES PAID FOR!