Haley Barbour and the BMW-driving Medicaid queen.

[PA Democrat]

Ronald Reagan created the lie of the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" to turn the public sentiment against welfare recipients. Now Haley Barbour creates his own nasty lie to smear Medicaid recipients:

"We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment."
--Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Feb. 27, 2011



The Washington POst says this is a big fat lie.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2011/03/haley_barbours_medicaid_fantas.html

Mississippi provides some of the lowest Medicaid benefits to working adults in the nation. A parent who isn't working can qualify only if annual family income is less than 24 percent of the poverty line. Working parents qualify only if they make no more than 44 percent of the federal poverty level. Seniors and people with disabilities are eligible with income at 80 percent of the poverty line. Pregnant women do better -- they're eligible with income up to 185 percent of the poverty level.

Translated from the federal poverty guidelines, that means a working Mississippi couple with one child could earn no more than $8,150 a year and still qualify for Medicaid, seniors and people with disabilities could earn no more than $8,700, and a pregnant woman could earn no more than $20,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the German-engineered BMW is a pretty fancy car. Edmunds.com says that new BMW car prices range from nearly $30,000 to more than $120,000. That seems out of the price range of someone making $8,000 a year.

Checking used BMWs worth less than $5,000 in Mississippi on Yahoo Used Cars finds 10 available within 300 miles of Jackson, the state capital -- but all carrying lots of miles. Four grand, for instance, would get you a 1996 BMW 328i with 237,000 miles on it. But even that, for many of Mississippi's Medicaid recipients, would be half a year's salary.

[Hotler]

1. kicking n/t

[liberal N proud]

2. Those stories never tell how old that BMW or Caddy are

Nor do they ever explain the sequence of events that brought the queen to the bottom the economic ladder.

:nuke:

[Hannah Bell]

7. the implication is that the medicaid recipient somehow cheated & doesn't really need the benefits.

not really at the bottom of the ladder. has plenty of money & uses it to buy cadillacs.

[PA Democrat]

9. Yes. Barbour's intent is to divide and conquer.

Make the middle class hate the poor, and aid him in his efforts to destroy the social safety net.

[liberal N proud]

10. I know what they are implying, they just conveniently leave out the details

of how that "queen' ended up needy.

If I am doing well and have no reason to think that my job is in jeopardy so I go out and buy a BMW and lose my job, what am I going to do, buy a rotted out old rust bucket that will cost me to keep running? The BMW may be paid off and running fine, but because I am now needy, I need to sell it and buy a money pit? :wtf:

These have been peddling this bullshit for years.

[subterranean]

16. That's because the "queen" is a fictional character.

Barbour left out the details because details can be verified. Of course, even if the media went to the trouble to check and debunk the story, 80% of Republicans would still believe it.

[Sal Minella]

3. Now there you go again --

trying to confuse us with facts.

I'm sure I saw the Medicaid Queen in the BMW at the grocery store, buying an orange with food stamps and then hurrying to the liquor store next door to buy booze with the change.

And even if I didn't actually see her, Ronald Reagan did. Or somebody he knew saw her. Or told him he saw her. Or something.

[rgbecker]

4. What does Barbour drive? A Yugo?

[NV Whino]

5. Beemers last forever

If he even did see such a thing, no telling how old it was.

[Erose999]

6. You can get a beater early to mid '90's 3 series for less than $1000

Solid cars, to be sure. But once "new" wears off they are not too much more expensive than anything else on 4 wheels.

[n2doc]

13. +1

They seem to depreciate pretty quickly, but I know folks who have bought 10 year old 5 series BMW's for $7-8K and have gotten 100k miles more out of them after that. Seems like a pretty good used car. And a lot more fun to drive than what you can get for under 10K dollars nowadays new.

[Johonny]

8. I once saw a squirrel on water ski's

if rodents can afford aquatic gear then we need to stop funding the department of the interior.

[PA Democrat]

11. LOL. Good one.

[davidinalameda]

15. makes perfect sense to me

if I was a teabagger

[Doctor_J]

12. How does this slob get elected to any office higher than dog catcher?

I can't wait to see the campaign ads when he runs for president

- "Mississippi has the worst schools in America. As president, Barbour would like to take the entire country to that level. No thanks"

- "Mr. Barbour says he doesn't want the entire country to turn into San Francisco, one of the most beautiful places in the world. He would prefer to turn it into Mississippi, which he and his right-wing cronies have driven to poverty though their racist and elitist policies. No thanks."

Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

[hobbit709]

14. I see Boss Hogg is blithering again.