Joni Ernst: A Whole ‘Generation’ Relies ‘On The Government To Provide Absolutely Everything For Them’
Joni Ernst, pig testicle juggler, and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Iowa, said that a “generation of people” has been created that relies “on the government to provide absolutely everything for them” in an audio highlighted by Democrats on Thursday.
[su_center_ad]Iowa’s amount of welfare recipients has gone down from 2007 to 2008, which is largely due to dramatic cuts.
Ernst just Mitt Romneyed her state’s voters by labeling them as takers and makers, just not quite as bluntly as the failed presidential candidate did in his ’47 percent’ moment.
In the audio, which was tagged by Talking Points Memo, Ernst said a “generation of people” has been created that relies “on the government to provide absolutely everything for them.”
Ernst continued to say that “it’s going to take a lot of education to get people out of that. It’s going to be very painful and we know that.”
She further claimed that the Affordable Care Act would exacerbate this problem. “We’re looking at Obamacare right now. Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those?” she said. “It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs.”
The Washington Post reports:
In the audio, Ernst came out for a balanced budget amendment, said that would require “severe cuts,” reiterated her desire to eliminate the Department of Education, vowed a “good, hard look at entitlement programs,” and said electing a GOP Senate majority would be a key step towards all of this. She also said we are “encouraging people” to get on food stamps. And then she waxed philosophical:
“What we have to do a better job of is educating not only Iowans, but the American people that they can be self-sufficient. They don’t have to rely on the government to be the do-all, end-all for everything they need and desire, and that’s what we have fostered, is really a generation of people that rely on the government to provide absolutely everything for them. It’s going to take a lot of education to get people out of that. It’s going to be very painful and we know that. So do we have the intestinal fortitude to do that?…
Those comments were made in 2013. Obamacare is here. The economy is healing. The Apocalypse didn’t happen. Neither did the death panels. [su_csky_ad]
forpeace October 16th, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Oh be careful, Joni, do NOT use Mitt Romney’s 47% takers and freeloaders lines because that was one of so many reasons he had lost. But, now I know he was talking about Cliven Bundy and others just like him.
— Joni Ernst has proposed eliminating the IRS, the Department of Education, and the Environmental Protection Agency as a means of cutting federal spending. She has advocated eliminating the Department of Education “not just because it would save taxpayer dollars, but because I do believe our children are better educated when it’s coming from the state.”
— She indirectly endorsed Paul Ryan’s partially privatized Medicare model in a 2011 Iowa Senate vote.
— She has also received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association for her support of gun-rights issues.
— She opposes the federal minimum wage, and instead argues that states should have sole authority to set their own minimum wages.
— She stated: “We don’t know that there were WMDs on the ground when we went in, however, I do have reason to believe there were WMDs in Iraq.
— When asked whether she supports the limited airstrikes conducted in Iraq in August 2014, Ernst said: “What I can say is what I would have supported is leaving additional troops in Iraq longer and perhaps we wouldn’t have this situation today”.
NW10 October 16th, 2014 at 8:58 pm
Looks like we’ve got three Republican candidates with their own 47% moments: David “Mitt Romney Jr.” Perdue in Georgia, Scott Walker in Wisconsin (his minimum wage comment), and Joni Ernst in Iowa. This is precisely why the GOP are trying to make the election about Obama, to avoid gaffes like these from being made.
arc99 October 16th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
I wish one of these anti government right wingers would sit down and explain exactly why it is that relying on for-profit corporations is inherently superior to relying on government.
Corporations provide only what is profitable. If there is no profit in providing a good or service, a corporation will not provide it.
Maybe Republicans want their water, roads, medicines, education and a host of other services available only to those who can afford to pay enough to make it profitable for a corporation.
But I am pro-life which means I think people should have water, medicine and education regardless of whether or not there is profit to be made in providing them.
mmaynard119 October 16th, 2014 at 9:10 pm
Is she talking about the generation of pigs she’s castrated?
causeican October 16th, 2014 at 9:14 pm
So she’s going to give pain to voters if they support her.
causeican October 16th, 2014 at 9:14 pm
So she’s going to give pain to voters if they support her.
Sir Matthew October 16th, 2014 at 9:20 pm
I am fighting hard to get Braley elected to keep her out of the Senate! Iowa already has the HUGE embarrassment Steve King. We don’t need his clone in the Senate!
KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker October 16th, 2014 at 9:23 pm
This woman is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Many generations have depended on the government to provide roadways, bridges, police & fire protection, advanced telecommunications, clean drinking water, laws protecting the citizenry, sewage treatment & garbage pick-up, mail delivery, taking care of children, the elderly & the less fortunate as well as maintaining a military to protect the entire nation. These are all things that our parents, grandparents and forefathers understood. They are just things that we should do together as a people…..it’s called self governance.
We all rely on what we choose to do together as a collective society.
So what’s your point Joni?
Kingminnie October 16th, 2014 at 10:52 pm
It’s kind of outrageous how these baggers are convincing people who don’t have the brains to know better how regulations and infrastructure are really so much better for their health, their children and their livelihoods. I think she knows, though. She’s got Koch backing and needs to talk crap so she’ll continue to get their funding. It’s not about people anymore, but I don’t have to tell you that.
tracey marie October 16th, 2014 at 9:57 pm
Hating, denigrating and lying about Americans because they are , in their minds only black people. The military, children and the elderly need the most welfare. Whites are the largest group on welfare by their sheer numbers
mrsgunka October 16th, 2014 at 10:32 pm
Just as long as her farm subsidies keep coming in and you send her to DC to suck off the teet of the Government for a few years, she’ll be happy. She’s tired of making her pigs squeal and wants to make us squeal. She’s a real darlin’!
Perhaps if we could get the jobs back from overseas, those people wouldn’t need government assistance! Curious, does her family run a big hog operation? She’d love to close down the EPA so she could just let the all that pig sh*t run off on the ground to taint the water supply for everyone. If her neighbors are complaining about the smell now, just wait till she doesn’t have to haul it off to be disposed of properly!
Des Moines is the 2nd largest place for insurance companies in the country. (outside of Hartford, CN) They are NOT happy with the ACA and you know they are backing their party to get that changed!
ConAgra does not like the EPA either so they will be backing her. Probably more fertilizer and weed killer dumped on Iowa soil than any other square inch of land in the world. Someone needs to ask her about the cancer rate in their state. Even we, that grew up there, are suffering from our time there. Many of my former classmates have or had cancer. (Me included) and no one else in my family did. I’m 75 and none of my ancestors were exposed during their child hood like we were. Breast, brain, lung and colon. Strong winds, shallow wells. Tell us again Joni, what is corporate America going to do for us?
neworleans878 October 16th, 2014 at 10:51 pm
If she really means what she’s saying, she should shout loud about the evils of farm subsidies…that’ll go down swell in Iowa…
burqa October 16th, 2014 at 11:32 pm
Good call.
I would add that if she really means what she is saying, let’s see how long she can go without doing anything that involves or involved government funding. Let’s see her only take medicines that were developed without government investment, drive only on roads built by private industry or only eat food that has not been inspected by government inspectors.
burqa October 16th, 2014 at 11:26 pm
Few in Iowa would be able to hear the audio without Rural Electrification. When Rural Electrification was enacted, 90% or rural America had no electricity in their homes.
tiredoftea October 17th, 2014 at 12:31 am
Ernst said a “generation of people” has been created that relies “on the government to provide absolutely everything for them.”Yes, Joni, they’re called corporations!
Wayout October 17th, 2014 at 9:11 am
But at least corporations pay taxes, most of them anyway, unless of course you are one of Obama’s friends at GE. People on the dole just keep taking and taking. From food stamps, to welfare payments, to Sections 8 housing. Aren’t YOU tired of paying for all that stuff for others?
OldLefty October 17th, 2014 at 9:22 am
But at least corporations pay taxes, most of them anyway, unless of course you are one of Obama’s friends at GE.
_________
Very little, and why only GE? (According to the company release, GE’s effective tax rate jumped to 29 percent in 2011. The company paid $2.9 billion in worldwide corporate income tax in 2011, and another $1 billion in other U.S. taxes that year, the release states.)
Why not close the loopholes that allow them to go overseas and take relocating their factories off as a deduction?
And yes, we ARE tired of paying for the 1%, and many of us remember when more working Americans could make enough money in America to PAY more in taxes for the society they wanted.
tiredoftea October 17th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
Corporations pay much less than they should in federal taxes and get state and local subsidies that drain city, county and state coffers. So, yes, I’m tired of all the breaks they get to “create jobs” and don’t create enough of them while they pay no penalties for taking those jobs offshore while paying senior management and boards of directors who excessively enrich themselves at our expense.
Anyone who is awarded, yes, awarded, public funds for SNAP and Section 8 housing are means tested to ensure their eligibility for those funds. The abuse there is much less than the tax abuse of the uber rich who escape their tax obligations by having their captive politicians write tax laws in their favor.
Mostly, I’m tired of ignorant clowns like you who spout nonsense crap here without giving thought to whether any of it makes sense.
fahvel October 17th, 2014 at 3:21 am
does her pretending to public office possibly suggest she is part of that sad sad iowa generation of takers who contribute nothing?
majii October 17th, 2014 at 5:00 am
So says the woman who is in the U.S. military and the Iowa Senate, both institutions that “take care” of her by paying her with citizens’ tax money.
Do the politicians who have always sucked at the government teat realize how stupid they sound when they accuse others of “relying on the government?”
Wayout October 17th, 2014 at 9:06 am
Being in the military is actually SERVING your country, not just taking from it. You libs just can’t stand the truth.
OldLefty October 17th, 2014 at 9:30 am
Like all the “fighting Democrats” who served, whom you CONS trashed?
Obewon October 18th, 2014 at 9:38 am
Phony Joni is nothing more than a foolish hypocritical ditzy #GOPKochAddict. Wayout was too scared of “Being in the military.”
jasperjava October 28th, 2014 at 8:17 pm
That’s rich, coming from the guy who is “not all that aggrieved” when US troops are needlessly killed in wars for profits.
Gindy51 October 17th, 2014 at 7:29 am
Yea, Joni, YOUR base you know the teabagging seniors in hover rounds on social security and medicare. Stupid twit.