We’ve got your Republican sexism and misogyny right here, whipped up by Sen. Ron Johnson. Combine the first two ingredients with the GOP disconnect from the working class, and bake the mess with their total ignorance of the welfare system, and you have a big ol’ pile of stinking intentional misinformation that scapegoats women, and just keeps on growing!
Johnson recently declared that if a single working mother wants to “increase her take-home pay” instead of having “another child out of wedlock” and take incentive instead of relying on welfare to take care of her – (two outrageous stereotypes popular in GOP Land),she should do herself a favor and “find someone to support her.”
Does Johnson mean that women should marry into money the way HE did? It has worked out quite well for him. Sadly, single working mothers don’t have the leisure time for socializing that U.S. Senators do.
Johnson validates his asinine directive to women below. Just as Michele Bachmann ‘heard of’ one woman who validated her anti-vaccination views, Johnson heard a story from his pal and very poor source, Glenn Grothman. The one person example on the stump speech also reminds me of “Joe the Plumber” who was neither an entrepreneur (as advertised) nor was he a plumber.
Johnson, who is chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, somehow feels that he has the expertise to speak to the issue of women, work and welfare:
“One of the first people I met on the campaign trail was a state senator [Glenn Grothman – who is now a U.S. Rep in Congress]. His entire stump speech talked about a single mom – working hard, and we all have a great deal of sympathy for her, she makes fifteen thousand part time. She doesn’t pay taxes – she gets the earned income tax credit. Then he totals up the dollar value for benefits. His figure came to about fifty-one thousand and I’ve kinda’ gone back, I’ve calculated about forty-three thousand.” Johnson continues: ” I asked my audience ‘now if she wants to increase her take-home pay, what does she do?’ She has another child out of wedlock, right? (gosh, it’s like money in the bank, ladies)Johnson continues, “Does she want to lose it all? She finds someone to support her. And she gets married.”
Politifact squelched Grothman’s fantasy that a ““A single parent with a couple kids can easily get $35,000 a year” in public assistance in Wisconsin.” In fact: Most single working mothers do not receive welfare! This is one of the most consistent lies by Republicans when speaking of single working mothers.
According to SingleMotherGuide:
At any one time, about two thirds of single mothers are working outside the home. Only half are employed full-time, all year long. A quarter are jobless the entire year. Among those who were laid off or looking for work, less than a quarter received unemployment benefits.
Here are those benefits we hear so much about. Two fifths of all single mothers received food stamps. Among children with single mothers, 45% get food stamps and 55% do not. Roughly two thirds received free or reduced price meals…And Congress is working to cut those.