Someone Tell Lindsay Graham That White People Get Medicaid

[Mass]

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/12/someone-tell-lindsay-graham-that-white-people-get-medicaid.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+matthewyglesias+(Matthew+Yglesias)&utm_content=Google+Reader (video at link)

When he did it yesterday I thought maybe he was just free-associating or something, but Media Matters observes that yesterday in formal remarks on the Senate floor Lindsay Graham again argued that South Carolina deserves a fair share of Medicaid money specifically by citing the fact that black people live there:

Graham seems to have some combination of the belief that all black people are poor, only black people are eligible for Medicaid, all poor people are black, or something. The reality is that South Carolina is, in fact, a state with a lot of poor people—its 15.1 percent poverty rate in 2007 put it above the national average, and the number will have only gone up since the recession hit. But of course poor people can be white, black, Asian, whatever. And Matt Finkelstein observes that there are more white Medicaid recipients in South Carolina than black ones.

I guess the thing to do next is play dumb and say I don’t I understand why Senator Graham wants to drag race into this conversation. But let’s just say that to be charitable about it, he’s really stupid and I can also think up some less charitable explanations.

Note: Graham made the same remarks this morning on the Today Show

[WCGreen]

1. Every now and then the GOP let's their game face down and allows

the underlying racism the percolates through their party to rise to the surface...

[jwirr]

2. He must not know that Seniors who run out of their personal savings

are almost always receiving Medicaid when they are in the nursing homes. Most run out in 5-7 months.

[newtothegame]

3. "Matt Finkelstein observes there are more white Medicaid recipients in South Carolina than black"

I would hope so, whites outnumber blacks in South Carolina by over 2:1.

[Clio the Leo]

4. lol NT

[Nancy Waterman]

5. Rachel covered this tonight

He really revealed himself on this one, twice.