Gaffe: Boehner, paid $107/hour, says those getting $300/week in UI benefits are happy not working

 

Michael Kinsley, a standout political commentator for many years, once famously said that a political gaffe occurs when a politician, in a non-PC moment, inadvertently reveals how he actually feels about a particular subject.

Well, Speaker of the House John Boehner apparently engaged in a Kinsley-style gaffe the other day when he said that those workers receiving unemployment benefits are lazy and don’t want to work. That’s a particularly astounding broad-brush statement, given that it came just as the Republican-controlled House adjourned for seven weeks after doing very little work in the previous 36 weeks of 2014.

“I think this idea that’s been born out the last – maybe out of the economy last couple of years that, ‘you know, I really don’t have to work. I don’t really want to do this, I think I’d just rather sit around.’ This is a very sick idea for our country,” Boehner said in a speech captured on video.

Liberal commentators pounced, insisting that the Ohio Republican’s remarks were a reflection of the overall GOP mold that says those in poverty choose to live that way.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times said: “What Mr. Boehner was clearly saying what he and everyone around him really thinks, what they say to each other when they don’t expect others to hear. Some conservatives have been trying to reinvent their image, professing sympathy for the less fortunate. But what their party really believes is that if you’re poor or unemployed, it’s your own fault.”

I’m not sure if any of the critics mentioned that Boehner is worth $3.6 million and that he gets paid nearly $4,300 a week for a fairly cushy job with lots of perks, while those who supposedly choose to live off of unemployment receive about $300 a week. In those rare times when the House actually puts in a 40-hour work week, it’s important to note that Boehner is paid about $107 an hour.