New Audio of Joni Ernst Speech in 2013 Outlines Radical Ideology Built on Punishing the Poor

During last night’s debate in Iowa, everyone’s favorite pig-castrating mom, Senate hopeful Joni Ernst, regurgitated two of the right’s key talking-points: a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, and a promise not to raise taxes under any circumstances.

We see this psychotic idée fixe in proponents of Neo-Liberalism all the time. We practically expect it; followed through, the implications of Ernst’s constitutional mandates would lead to the dismantling of most of the federal government. Which, as we all know, is the ultimate goal.

I say that with near certainty, by the way. Greg Sargent reported yesterday on a 2013 Ernst speech in which she outlines her “rather stark views about the relationship of Americans with their government.”In it, Ernst claims that we have created “a generation of people that rely on the government to provide absolutely everything for them,” and that wrenching them away from their dependence “is going to be very painful.” […]

In the audio, Ernst came out for a balanced budget amendment, said that would require “severe cuts,” reiterated her desire to eliminate the Department of Education, vowed a “good, hard look at entitlement programs,” and said electing a GOP Senate majority would be a key step towards all of this. She also said we are “encouraging people” to get on food stamps

“A generation” of Americans who “rely on government to provide absolutely everything for them.” Correcting this problem is going to be “very painful.”

If she sounds like Mitt Romney, that’s probably intentional; there’s a lot of his “47% philosophy” in her words.

Her view on healthcare is similar. The GOP already believes that effective Ebola-protection (my new term for healthcare; we might as well try and channel that fear into something useful) should be a privilege and not a right. Ernst of course agrees; of Obamacare, Ernst said that:

We’re looking at Obamacare right now. Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those? It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs…we rely on government for absolutely everything. And in the years since I was a small girl up until now into my adulthood with children of my own, we have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do. They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it. But we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything.

Which is to say, if you can’t afford Ebola-protection on your own, then it’s not the government’s problem.

I’m almost convinced that they read Neuromancer growing up and said, “wow, what a great future.”

For those of us who are just barely surviving and relying on our sick mockery of social safety net to survive, Ernst and the rest of the GOP have a message for you: it’s time to suffer for needing help, and there’s a “very painful” future in store for you.

You can listen to the audio here, courtesy of Radio Iowa.