Megyn Kelly sounded a lot more like a Republican pundit than the “straight news anchor” she claims to be as she described Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as offering “a lot of free stuff” to Democratic voters. And by that, she meant the poor and minorities who, she suggested, are just a bunch of moochers.
The “free stuff” line comes directly from Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 campaign when he told a friendly, presumably mostly white audience in Montana, that he told the NAACP, “(I)f they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff.”
But for some reason, despite a backlash against Romney when he reiterated the thought after he lost, several of the 2016 crop of Republican candidates have revived the meme.
Last night, Megyn Kelly joined the GOP gang as she and Bret Baier gave their closing thoughts on the primary results.
It’s worth pointing out that the show ended right in the middle of the Michigan cliffhanger between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It was just another slap in the face of Democrats, following Fox’s airing of Donald Trump’s bizarre press conference in full while while ignoring Hillary Clinton’s speech.
And then there was this, as Baier noted that it looked like Sanders would “pull out a surprise win”:
KELLY: Even if the Bernie thing is potentially a mirage, right? The longer that contest goes on, the more potentially damaging it is to the Democratic side...
BAIER: You’re exactly right. I mean, there is a civil war going on inside the Democratic party… The fact that young people overhwlemingly are going towards the Sanders campaign is a concern.
KELLY: Mmhmm, and he’s offered a lot of free stuff and now so has she, for the young people which they love to hear. Who could blame them?
As Simon Maloy, at Salon, pointed out, the right-wing concern about “free stuff” is grossly hypocritical and undermined by the fact that Republicans are happy to pass out free goodies to well-off Americans in the form of tax breaks.
But I’ll bet you won’t hear Kelly suggesting that any of those already-wealthy, potential beneficiaries are undeserving freeloaders.
Watch it below, from the March 8 Americas Election HQ.
Whore would fit though.
There’s lots of other moochers too. Wall Street moochers, energy exploration moochers, pill company moochers, fat cat moochers and the list goes on and on. You hardly ever hear Faux talk about those moochers.
But my own favorite government moochers (and I’m not kidding) was our own pioneering forefathers on the Great Plains. They had subsidised protection in the form of the US army and their land was given to them by Uncle Sam. All without one red cent from them in taxes. I am not gonna hold my breath waiting for Faux to get around to talking about THOSE moochers though.
On a more (but not totally) serious note, wasn’t it Ted Cruz who said he wanted to double size of our military at a debate re Obama gutted it? Don’t recall the serious deficit hawks of Fox News asking a followup on how he’d pay for it. Oh, tax cuts of course. Nevermind! 👍
As you point out, Republicans bribe voters with tax cuts. In one of your debate open threads I was laughing at the Republican bidding war on who came up with the ridiculously lowest flat tax rate. I think Teddy won at 10%.
Yep, it’s the Republican version of the free lunch. The more you cut the more revenue the government takes in. The Laffer Curve simply is a straight, never ending line. So let’s cut taxes to 0% and watch the money just roll in!!! 👍
