Adam “Don’t Call Me A Racist Just Because I Talk Like One” Carolla visited the O’Reilly Factor for another dose of his “humor” that just happens to malign people less fortunate than he and – oh, yeah – happen to be minorities. Monday night’s target: food stamp recipients. Because Carolla grew up with a mother on public assistance that seems to be all the credentials needed for him to rail against them. With Bill O'Reilly's approval.
What set Carolla off this time was an ad “touting food services for welfare mothers,” as O’Reilly put it. The ad showed a woman with two young children saying, “As a busy Mom, shopping at a grocery store with my food vouchers is a hassle. That’s why I shop at Mother’s Nutritional Center. I simply present my food vouchers to the friendly staff and they do the shopping for me.” As we see children playing in what’s presumably a store play area, the woman extols the prices and healthy selections and the fact that the store will carry her groceries to her car. “Mother’s Nutritional Center saves me valuable time with my food-voucher shopping.”
What bugged Carolla was not that he didn’t think the program might work to help mothers get healthy foods for themselves and their families. No, the problem was that it was treating those welfare queens mothers too nicely.
Carolla said:
My beef is the free beef she’s getting that I’m paying for. But I’m sort of over that. The fact that she doesn’t have to shop herself and that they even bring it out to the car for her – we’re this close to just having – what, people eat food and then pass it for you as well? I mean we give you the food, then we get you the food, then we bring it out to the family Truckster for you? How about you get off your ass, get a job, earn some money, buy your own food. And what kind of example are you setting for your family? And, here’s really what I object to. It’s not that certain people don’t need help from us and the government. It’s that when you give too many people help, they start to atrophy.
Did Carolla bother to do any research into the conditions of the people he’s essentially calling moochers? If he had, he’d know that the vast majority of SNAP (i.e. “food stamps”) recipients either work or are part of elderly or disabled households. Forbes magazine reported last year, “Only one in six SNAP households in 2010 is a nonworking family without kids or an elderly or disabled family member.” The USDA reported last fall that nearly 42% of SNAP participants are employed full or part time (31.5% employed full time). The point, as neither Carolla nor O’Reilly ever seems to get, is so many people work in jobs that don’t pay enough to support a family.
Well, maybe Carolla gets it some. But his solution? Work harder and don’t tax him more by having children.
Rather than do any research of his own, O’Reilly probed for more of Carolla’s knee-jerk response that passes for analysis on Fox and asked him to talk about his own experiences “com(ing) from a family that did get food stamps.”
I just know that a person’s capable of doing almost everything and the same person’s capable of doing nothing. And if you deliver the food to ‘em or you deliver the dwelling to them or whatever you’re delivering to them, meaning you go through life where there’s no adversity and you don’t have to get up in the morning and go to work… you’re gonna atrophy and you’re not gonna get any stronger.
Carolla’s “expertise” in the area is because his mother “waited for food stamps” instead of getting a job. According to him, she said that if she got a job, she’d lose her welfare. Instead of considering what that might say about the kinds of jobs and pay available, Carolla obviously thought it proved something wrong in his mother.
I won’t dwell on what Carolla’s attitude says about his feelings toward his mother. But I will re-emphasize that his words reveal a lot about his attitudes toward the poor and the working poor - i.e. minorities, whether he wants to admit it or not. In fact, he went on to boast:
I don’t have the white privilege guilt that many other people in the media have. …How many million people are on food stamps in this country, 50 million? How many of them would go hungry if we cut them off? None? Five? Thirteen? Out of 50 million, how many literally would go hungry if we cut them off that program?
Excuse me while I try not to throw up as I wonder just how many people Carolla thinks should be cut off from food stamps. For their own good. Meanwhile, I'll point out that once again, Carolla merely revealed his ignorance of the problem. Had he bothered to view the documentary “A Place At The Table,” e.g., he might have been able to discuss the situation from a less self-centered perspective. But don’t hold your breath. Millionaire Bill “I’ll quit rather than pay more taxes” O’Reilly said that there’s no welfare or food stamps in Mexico and “nobody’s starving to death in the streets.”
So there you have the patriotic vision from Carolla and O’Reilly: Nobody starving to death in the streets is good enough for the poor in America.
At least his former Man Show co-host Kimmel is far more successful.
“Maybe people should get off their behinds and make something happen for themselves.”
OK Cristian, HOW ABOUT YOU LEADING THE WAY? Like Aria Prescott just said, let’s see YOU try to keep a roof over your head (or even worse, raise a family) working LONG HOURS FOR CHUMP CHANGE AND NO BENEFITS at places like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s. It’s time for bellyaching rightwing slobs like YOU to PUT UP OR SHUT THE HELL UP!
1) Adam Carolla is hardly “making a killing” on anything. The term implies the revenue, not the volume. Do Newshounds writers get rich every time one of our articles go big? No.
Why did Carolla go big? Well, it would appear that the numbers line up with the time he spent two weeks petitioning for Gays and the Transgendered to stop being referred to as people.
2) To expand on #1, Carolla, despite all the connections he started out with (and have since then driven off)… is only worth $15 million. in monetary terms, he is one of the least successful celebrities in history. Stephanie Courtney, who plays Flo the Progessive Girl is worth more than he is.
And let’s divide this up- He’s worth $15 million for three successful TV shows, two successful radio shows, his books, his stand-up, his podcast, his appearances and cameos…
This guy has had enough success that he should be raking in more than his total worth in residuals. But apparently he’s as bad at keeping money as he is at making it.
3) Read #1 and #2 again- Carolla either can’t make money, keep money, or both. The second his act gets stale, he’s gonna be on food stamps. Mark my words, he will blow through it that fast.
4) How nice of you to assume people on food stamps are just lazy. Because some of the people here are working two jobs, a couple have a spouse with a full-time job, and GUESS WHAT?! And you know why? Because their little corner of the Red State they live in is that far gone playing the fiddle of “Keep on tryin’ them dar Republican Ideas until theys start a-workin’!” Mentality.
Incidentally, did you know that 8 of the 10 most dependent on food stamp states are longtime Red states? And that of the two blue states, one went blue during 2008, and the other went blue during his term? Incidentally, both notably improved their situation since doing so.
But you do have a very, very nice day.
The Fox “News” frauds have a history of choosing D-list mouthpieces for guest appearances.
NOTE TO CAROLLA
One day, you will find yourself on food stamps, again. Karma.