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I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Cara

For those who have not heard of Henrietta Hughes, she is a homeless woman who stood up at a town hall meeting and told Barack Obama that she is unemployed and has been forced her to live in her car.  She further pleaded with the president to do something to ensure that people like her had housing: 

“I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in,” she said. “The housing authority has two years’ waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.”

Now, Michelle Malkin has decided to publicly mock her with taunts like “If she had more time, she probably would have remembered to ask Obama to fill up her gas tank, too.”  She then went on to say:

Hughes didn’t explain the cause of her financial turmoil. Obama didn’t ask. And if we conservatives dare to question the circumstances — and the underlying assumption that it is government’s (that is, taxpayers’) role to bail her out — we’ll be lambasted as cruel haters of the downtrodden.

[. . .]

Well, pardon my unbending belief in fairness and personal responsibility, but why should my tax dollars go to feed the housing entitlement beast?

Indeed, why should housing be considered a right?  After all, what does my housing say about my personal class status and how much better I am than other people, if there aren’t those other people out there who don’t have a place to live at all?

The worst part is that Malkin isn’t alone.  From Limbaugh falsely saying that Hughes “ask[ed] for a car” to others claiming that Hughes is “milking the system,” there’s no shortage of people who want to bring down the woman who had the potential to a far more sympathetic Joe the Plumber — an everyday American who is actually negatively affected by the economic policies of our government.

And they can get away with it!  I just, honestly, do not understand.  Are people like Malkin really so privileged and entitled themselves that they just do not comprehend the very concept of housing not owned by the person living in it — and that therefore “I need a place to live” does not equal “buy me a new house, please” — or do they just really think that no, if you’re not as fortunate as the rest of us, you really do deserve to live on the street, and as a neighbor I have absolutely no responsibility for what happens to you?

On second thought, I don’t know that I want the answer to that.

Via Womanist Musings

41 thoughts on I just threw up in my mouth a little.

  2. this is why I couldn’t talk to my parents during the election. it’s as if giving a shit about what happens to homeless people = the death of “american values.” it’s sick.

  3. Somebody actually said during the election that poor people are poor because they are immoral. Good to know it’s not the medical bills that are crushing me- it’s my own complete immorality.

  4. Those who keep blaming unemployment on the unemployed can’t explain why everyone who was so darned virtuous eight years ago is a slacker today.

    They also ignore the fact that the Federal Reserve, endorsed by government economists, actually makes money tighter when unemployment gets “too” low. Supposed to prevent inflation, ya know.

  6. My sister parroted much this talking point before teh November elections. Not even thinking about what she was saying. I was disgusted, and still am. If we lose our home trough unemployment and/or combined with my health going south she has basically said she has no problem with me being out on my ass.

    I don’t speak to her much anymore.

  7. Hughes has been in and out of public housing/assistance for at least 25 years, to apparently no good effect. I very much doubt anything Obama or anyone else does will do much to change her situation.

  8. Cytemnestra, Isn’t it funny how the people who say it isn’t the government’s responsibility, it’s the private sector and family’s responsibility are the one’s who don’t help their family and don’t donate or volunteer?

    CTD, How much do you really know about her situation and WHY she has been in and out of needing assistance for 25 years? Or are you going to judge without that information?

  9. Ellen,

    I have no idea why Hughes has had such longstanding financial problems. I’m emphatically not “judging” whether she “deserves” to be in the circumstances she is in. I’m only judging the likelihood that a situation that has persisted for a quarter century will now change is some substantive, lasting way. I put said odds at or about zero.

  10. CTD,

    It may not change, but the point is, we should help if help is needed. This woman needs help, it doesn’t matter how long she’s needed help before. This post is about how, when someone asks for help, the conservative pundits treat her like shit and it’s not right.

  13. Pingback: A Conflict of Definitions « 24 Percent

  14. CTD, all that means to me is that she doesn’t have a safety net that many of us privileged people do. She wasn’t born into a family with money. Her family cannot send her money every time she needs it. No one judges rich people’s children who live off of their families or off of their trust funds, who get jobs through connections, who have the time to go to school because they are supported by their parents while seeking a degree.

    I for one am thankful she has had this assistance, because it is better than the alternative, which is homelessness. And, she is homeless now anyway. I think people who begrudge people housing assistance are cold hearted, and they should be incredibly thankful that they were not born into other circumstances.

  15. MomTH,

    Given the fact that she’s availed herself of subsidized housing, Medicare, SSID etc. for many years, it seems she does in fact, have a safety net…

    My point was that said safety net has had no discernible good effect to this point, and is unlikely to in the future, either.

  17. The good effect is that she had help with housing, health care and food. Many people see this as a good thing. It’s not only people with comfortable families who deserve these things. And, the safety net is failing her if she is homeless now.

    The unemployment rate is 10% right now in many places, CTD. Trust me, even those of us who have jobs and comfortable lives will be affected if these people do not have an effective safety net. Your tax dollars go to pay for people showing up at ERs for health care when their diseases are advanced if they do not have health care for appropriate early treatment, and your insurance costs go up, and your medical bills go up.

    Your taxes will go up if police and other government workers have to deal with more homeless people, since many places treat homelessness as a crime. Your food prices will go up if people are forced to steal food when they are hungry. Surely, even if you can look in the face of the unemployed and tell them you don’t care if they are homeless, hungry, and have no health care, maybe your wallet would want to invest good money into preventing these higher costs and, as a side benefit, alleviate suffering.

  18. CTD, your statement about “discernible good effect” is absurd on face, and I’m inclined to take that as deliberately obtuse.

    I think I’d like to make a simple comment that there are many people who are invested in the fact that other people have less than they do. There is a large constituency that actively uses its political muscle to ensure that Mrs Hughes never succeeds. Any effort to improve a nobody’s life is going to meet determined opposition from all the other crabs in the barrell that are determined to be somebody. This is true even of some members of gov’t agencies that are supposed to help them!

    Holding up one person to indicate the hopelessness of many is a bad thing to do, I think. I do not believe Henrietta Hughes is truly helpless. I also think that there is a worthwhile fraction to whom the services that Mrs Hughes recieved made a difference in people’s lives in the way that matters to you, CTD.

  19. I am so tired of the irrational hatred and fear of the poor that has become practically normal in some parts of our society. People will go to great lengths to paint anyone who struggles financially in the worst light possible. It is as if acknowledging social inequalities which aren’t based on merit (i.e. acknowledging that America is not a meritocracy) would ruin their whole worldview and force them to confront uncomfortable truths. And some people will do anything, even demonize a homeless elderly woman, to make sure they never have to even for a second question their privilege.

    Malkin practically delights in trashing a homeless woman for wanting to have her most basic needs covered… it’s sickening, that Malkin is so concerned that her tax dollars not be used to help those in need.

    Conservative radio pundit Bill Cunningham has also had more than a few choice words for struggling Americans. Such as “The reason people are poor in America is not because they lack money, it’s because poor people in America lack values, character, and the ability to work hard.”

  20. It is as if acknowledging social inequalities which aren’t based on merit (i.e. acknowledging that America is not a meritocracy) would ruin their whole worldview and force them to confront uncomfortable truths.

    Bada-bing! Got it in one.

    I recall somebody saying once that “Democrats believe we should live in a country where success is determined by merit. Republicans believe we already do.”

    From this is derived their policies on reproductive rights, gay rights, women’s rights, economic safety nets, and everything else. Gays are miserable because they’re gay, because if they were straight they’d have rights. Women either stay virgin, or deal with unwanted pregnancies, and AIDS is the punishment for homosexuality. If women stayed home with their children they wouldn’t have to worry about fair pay or sexual harassment or workplace discrimination, and if they were properly docile they wouldn’t be abused. And if the poor had any redeeming skills or personality traits to make them worth the oxygen they use up, they’d obviously be gainfully employed and have the budgeting skill to make minimum wage cover food and rent—no luxuries, maybe, but then if they deserved luxuries, they’d be able to afford them.

    I need to bleach my keyboard now.

  21. Pingback: Fear and Loathing of the Poor « The Czech

  22. We’re in an age where experienced project managers, executives, and IT techs are facing homelessness and bankruptcy, so why the attacks on this lone mother and son? Oh yeah, they’re homeless and Black, which means they’re spawns of Satan, or maybe agents of Al-Qaeda, to hear Malkin and Limbaugh tell it. What the freak?

    One more thing: where were the defenders of Hard Work (TM) when the big banks and investment firms took welfare bailout money, then proceeded to give themselves huge bonuses and other perks with those federal checks until they were caught? Why are folks suddenly angry when the poor ask for help?

  23. your statement about “discernible good effect” is absurd on face, and I’m inclined to take that as deliberately obtuse.

    If they’re so easy to spot, what are they then? She (and later her son) have been in the social welfare system for a quarter century, yet are still broke and homeless. This is a some sort of success story for her? Decades of the system have done nothing for her. And are unlikely to in the future. That was my only point.

  24. CTD: You are exactly right…the SYSTEM did nothing for her (and neither have you). Government failed her. Why? Because society which pushed government in a direction bought into the hillbilly crap spewed by people like community college dropout Limbaugh and family values adulterer Gingrich. When uneducated, hypocritical loud mouths direct and shape national policy for 30 years (through radio, talk television and congress as well as Reagan, Bush Sr. and his monkey son)….you get Henrietta Hughes. We are told socialism is bad…but no European would give up their system for ours. And I find it telling that in your very comments we can find hypocrisy. By your standard, the state has nor responsibility to wounded veterans either. But I am willing to say that you support the VA. But really, they were paid, they knew what they signed up for, they got bonuses and were given healthcare and educational support. Why should we help them? Better yet, as a physician I see middle class suburban pain killer addicts regularly. I also see people who eat too much and dont exercise and as such are coming in for their second or third heart procedure. We’ve been working with them for years in many cases, but to no avail. They still take the pills and eat like horses. I guess we should just give up on them too? Its your type of pseduo intellectualism that has lead us to our current ditch. Why don’t you guys just realize that you got everything wrong and shut the f(#U! up.

  25. Well, there is something terrifying about the fact that someone can work hard and still never get ahead in life. So I can understand how comforting it is to blame individuals for their own inability to rise above poverty (and the simultaneous self-congratulation for avoiding such a fate). I can’t even imagine the mental gymnastics that someone must go through to imagine that Hughes (or insert random homeless person here) is just too lazy or too stupid to avoid homelessness or living in her car. But I’ll just go back to feeling oh so sad for the CEOs who might have to squeak by on $500,000 a year. Sniff.

  26. Shah8 you are exactly right. This economy needs poor people to survive. If we actually for paid what products and services what they cost to provide, the economy would grow at much slower pace. Hmmm, if we paid more than minimum wage, or stopped employing sweat shops in Vietnam, companies might just have to be ok with just making a profit instead of increasing their profits every quarter.

    Maybe social services hasn’t helped Henrietta Hughes because we refuse to look at the structural causes of inequality and change some of the reasons why there is so little social mobility in the U.S.

    CTD, have you ever stopped to think about why white men are so much less likely to be living in poverty? Do you really think white men are morally and intellectually superior? Do they work harder than us?

  27. sorry about that really awkward sentence. It should say: If we actually paid for products and services what they were worth, the economy would grow at much slower pace.

  28. Boy some of the comments by readers following Michelle Malkins article are revolting. I saw the clip of Ms Hughes and was on the verge of tears. It’s easy for Malkin and those who think like her to blame poverty on those who live in it rather than realize that some people work their asses off but can’t seem to get ahead due to circumstances they can’t really control.

  29. Why should we accept that what CTD says about this woman’s history is even true? I’m completely on board with the above responses to the effect that even if Ms. Hughes has been on assistance “so what”, but it’s a little disturbing that some random and anonymous person in a comment section can make an assertion about her employment/mental health/public assistance history and its engaged in good faith. Really, Malkinites and right wingers don’t have a reputable history of their own in the claims they make about the unfortunates they attack for the crime of needing help; e.g., the unemployed, sick children, veterans.

  30. Some people with always be poor, will never be able to move past their circumstances, will always get the shit end of fate and luck, will always need some help.
    But that does not mean that as a society we should be willing to let them just fall by the wayside or accept homelessness or be content with the status quo. What does it say about America that there are people, well off people, who begrudge their fellow citizens what little bit help they can scrape up because it comes out of their “tax dollars”.

    As for Malkin and Limbaugh, all I know is karma is quite the bitch….

  31. “One more thing: where were the defenders of Hard Work (TM) when the big banks and investment firms took welfare bailout money, then proceeded to give themselves huge bonuses and other perks with those federal checks until they were caught? Why are folks suddenly angry when the poor ask for help?”

    THIS, damnit. THIS this this. Seriously. I haven’t heard the big banks being targeted in this way. Disgusting.

  32. CTD, decades of “the system” have kept her from worse poverty, worse illness, and have prevented her from starving to death. I am sure she sees that as a good outcome, and I am not sure why you have such a problem with the bare minimum this holey safety net has helped provide for her. Every food stamp for every hungry person is a success story. Every time a poor person can get the smallest amount of health care it is a success story. You seem to pretend that “the system” hasn’t been redistributing wealth to the rich for the last eight years, and look at the mess that brought to our economy. Is that the kind of success story you are looking for?

  33. For the moment, I’m going to lump together the religious right and the folks who say this kind of stuff, because “values” politics often seems to include all of them. I’m not one to make many religious arguments, but these folks are, and from what I remember of Sunday school way back when, Jesus said something like: Whatever you did unto one of the least, you did unto me.

    I know it’s much easier to remember and quote Leviticus ad infinitum, and implying that there’s not a boatload of hypocrisy inherent in many of the “values” politics arguments is kind of the straw man in this storm, but I’m continually amused by how the picking and choosing of the tenets they espouse overlooks all of those things which might make their lives inconvenient.

  34. I haven’t heard the big banks being targeted in this way. Disgusting.

    Thats because conservatism in America decided it was a good idea to trade Hayek for Jesus and Goldwater for Huckabee.

  35. I haven’t been actually speechless with rage in quite a long time. I donate my time and money to help end homelessness, and it’s attitudes like this that are our biggest obstacle. I don’t know how you guys in America do it, I really don’t.

    Oh hey, I just read three comments on that blog and my blood pressure has gone through the roof. Ugh, I hope everyone on there goes bankrupt and is forced out of their home and every time they ask their fellow conservatives for help all they get is ‘MY TAX DOLLARS’ and ‘BOOTSTRAPS’

    Assholes 15:3- And Jesus said, “Help not the poor and hungry, for they are lazy and weak, and your tax dollars should not be wasted on people too stupid to be born rich and white. Come, let us ignore everything I have said about compassion and go kick a leper.”

  36. Yeah, these pundits make me sick. She’s poor and black therefore mooching off the system.

    How about that guy who asked Obama about jobs at that same event? Someone called him an offered him a job almost immediately after. That’s a handout, considering I’m sure they didn’t call his references or look at his resume…

  37. “I haven’t heard the big banks being targeted in this way. Disgusting.”

    a) I do recall a chorus of “let them fail” from the Right, so I think your statement is factually inaccurate; and

    b) the banks were given loans with accruing interest, not money to spend/credits/whatever, which kind of makes the comparison apples to oranges.

  38. Hey Rodge, I hope I don’t go bankrupt (or maybe not, can bankruptcy get rid of student loan debt?) but I really love Assholes 15:3! nice!

  39. Oh, and we thought the world had a right to hate us because of Iraq? There’s no hope now that our banks have destroyed the world economy.

  40. Hey Rodge, I hope I don’t go bankrupt (or maybe not, can bankruptcy get rid of student loan debt?)”

    Generally, student loan debts are non-dischargeable, but if you get rid of all your other unsecured debts through bankruptcy, they may be more amenable to a revised payment plan. Also, if you meet the requirements for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it is possible your situation is dire enough to justify student loan forbearance or even loan forgiveness. (Disclaimer: I practice bankruptcy law but do not customarily deal with student loan agencies, although I’ve attended a few seminars addressing student loans and bankruptcy.)

  41. People who get angry about tax dollars that feed the poor but sit back quietly as we are robbed to support a pointless war or tax bailouts infuriate me just a bit.

    Selfishness gets us nowhere. I’m happy to give up a few of the dollars I earn for education and housing because thankfully I have a roof over my head. Maybe if we’d protest the corrupt places our money goes, we’d have more of it left over to go towards things that would actually help the country.

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