Leave it to Fox News to use even the Mega Millions lottery to bash President Obama. Fox Nation dug up a 2000 clip of then State Senator Barack Obama criticizing lotteries as a “regressive tax” that targets poor people to spend money they may not be able to afford. On Hannity last night, Sean Hannity called that another example of “class warfare” from President Obama. Guest James Taranto, from the Wall Street Journal, took it a step further. He waved off any concern by explaining that poor people play the lottery because they’re stupid and suggested they deserve to lose.
After the clip of Obama’s objections was played – and Hannity attacked him for “class warfare” - Taranto said,
“Look, it shouldn’t surprise us. I mean, Charles Murray has shown that… in our society, intelligence is increasingly important in making a good living. The higher your I.Q. is, the more likely you are to make a lot of money. So, a lottery is basically a tax on people who are bad at math. So it shouldn’t surprise us that there is a correlation between poor math skills and low income.”
Taranto went on to say, “If this were being run by a private company, this would be a fraud and I think it’s kind of outrageous... that the news media play up these lotteries and give free advertising to what is essentially a fraudulent enterprise by the government.”
So let’s get this straight: Taranto was suggesting that it’s OK, or at least not a big deal, for poor people to fall for a fraud because they’re stupid suckers.
Doesn’t that sound like class warfare? Not to Hannity! He was too busy pretending he was a regular guy. Holding up his lottery tickets, he called them “$20 worth of entertainment for me. That’s all it is.” He added laughably, “Look, I’ll play blackjack if I go to Vegas, I don’t bet the milk money, I don’t bet the kids’ tuition money, I just go have a little bit of fun and that’s it.”
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think Hannity – with a $100 million contract for his radio show, alone - plays at the high roller tables? Goes for the VIP treatment in Vegas (and elsewhere)? It’s downright insulting for him to talk about betting “the milk money” when it’s a safe bet Hannity hasn’t thought about milk money for years. In fact, I’ll wager that Hannity’s “entertainment” allowance at blackjack is more than a lot of us viewers pay in monthly rent.
The same “regular” ’Merican who lives in the most exclusive zip code on Long Island and maybe in the country.
I guess to him a sucker is someone who pays $5 for a shot at millions, not someone who pays $75 to pay for his 5-star hotel and Escalade fleet and hopes some of it might go to buy a textbook or two for some vets kid.
Probably like many of you I played in a office pool where over 30 of us each put in $5. Of course we didn’t win, but we knew what our odds were, but it was worth it. We had a lot of fun talking and joking about if we won and it was a great morale booster.
Anything Dumbya did bad wuz ona accounta Obama.
