Fallin to Poor Voters: “Thanks But No Thanks”

From the Editorial Writers in today’s Tulsa World:

Candidates for political offices often must tell their audiences what they want to hear. It’s one way they get votes. Candidates of both parties do it. That seemed to be the only excuse possible for U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin’s speech to the Tulsa Republican Club recently.
Fallin, who is running for governor of Oklahoma, and 1st District Rep. John Sullivan, who is seeking re-election, took their turns preaching to the choir. 

Both expounded on their notions that the state and federal governments need to tighten their belts; that taxes are a bad thing; that ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would be economic disaster. 

And Fallin added this oh-so-trite, worn-out Republican bon mot concerning tax breaks for the rich: “I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been offered a job by a poor person.” 

Really? Well, for the past 20 years Fallin’s job has been holding public office. She was elected to the Oklahoma House in 1990, she was elected lieutenant governor three times beginning in 1995 and she has served in Congress since 2006. With the exception of the few years she worked in the hotel business she has been serving, we thought, all the people of the state and her districts. 

She almost certainly received some votes from “poor people.” They might not have offered her a job firsthand, but they had a hand in giving her a job. 

In case Rep. Fallin hasn’t noticed, the poor (or maybe she prefers a label such as “unwealthy” or maybe “less wealthy”) far outnumber the wealthy in Oklahoma. And the poor have the same right to vote as the wealthy. If she’s going to be employed come November, she’s going to need those poor people’s job offers again, whether she likes it not.

Thank you, Tulsa World.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.