Pat Toomey: Americans Who 'Really Need Help' Are A 'Small Segment'

WASHINGTON -- One of the Senate GOP's leading budget mavens unveiled Wednesday the party's plan for cutting aid to the poor by $440 billion, saying the people "who really need help" in America make up a "small segment of our society."

The proposal was part of a Senate GOP budget plan detailed by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Similar to the 2013 House budget released last month by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), it comes out just after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Ryan's budget does not meet "moral criteria," largely because of its cuts to programs that aid the poor. The bishops argued for maintaining assistance aimed at needy families and people who are hungry.

Toomey, who is Catholic, said that he had not read the bishops' letters and that he doubts the opinions they represent are "monolithic."

The GOP senators' budget concludes that the current system of assistance "encourages dependency" and therefore should be reduced and changed to a state-run block grant program.

Toomey focused on that side of the equation.

"I share the view that I think most Pennsylvanians and most Americans have that we all have an obligation to look out for and provide help for people who really need help in our society," he told reporters, suggesting that too many people are receiving that aid. "There is a small segment of our society that absolutely needs a great deal of help because they can't really take care of themselves."

According to the latest Census, the number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to 49.1 million since the recession.

Toomey argued that charities and state and local governments should bear more of the burden and that individuals should look out more for themselves.

"In my experience, most people are capable of taking care of themselves at a fundamental level," said Toomey. "Most people are basically competent. Most people are able to be self-sufficient and want to be self-sufficient. I know there are other people who might disagree with that, but that's my view."

The GOP senators' budget would also reduce all marginal tax rates by 20 percent -- creating a bottom rate of 8 percent and a top rate of 28 percent -- and close unspecified tax loopholes. It was not immediately clear what that would mean for most taxpayers. The Ryan budget would allow for just two tax rates of 10 and 25 percent. That level of taxation would reap an average windfall for millionaires of $187,100, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

Michael McAuliff covers politics and Congress for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

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Comments

[morbius]

12:26 AM on 04/27/2012

As Sean Hennity says, people could get by on beans and rice, right Senator?

[Patrix]

03:46 PM on 04/24/2012

read for yourself

[Eris23Skidoo]

10:27 PM on 04/21/2012

That might have been true in the 1950s, Pat, but since then we abandoned Keynesianism and embraced this tinkle-down system that has impoverished the 99%.

[cityfox]

08:43 PM on 04/21/2012

Mr. Toomey, Shame on you.
please look at your own state. This is a bi-partisan issue and needs to be dealt with. Your state is one of the worse.
In 2003, Pennsylvania ranked 28th in the nation for poor children. A recent survey shows it's among the Top 10 hardest-hit states with the most people in severe poverty.

Pennsylvania is among the hardest-hit states with nearly 620,000 people now in deep poverty and hunger.

In Allegheny County, more than 41,000 children under the age of 18 live in poverty, with 18,000 of them in Pittsburgh.
The numbers are sobering.

Read more: http://www.wtae.com/news/14884087/detail.html#ixzz1sivtaBPz

[FloB]

12:22 AM on 06/12/2012

All children are poor, unless they mow lawns etc. Some are lucky enough to have parents who pay their bills. Others are unlucky in getting parents unable or unwilling to fulfill the responsibility they took on when they decided to become parents.

[David Conklin]

07:36 PM on 04/21/2012

A quick, simple example: people are downtown at one of the bus stops and they are scrounging around and asking virtually everyone they see, to see if there are any transfers they can use, because they don't have the money!

[lulubelle1956]

11:48 AM on 04/21/2012

where are the jobs. you promised to create during your 2010 campaigns gop/tp and boehner? not one job creation bill in almost two years now, just abortion, child labor, contraception, anti union and collective bargaining and other social attacks. your bait and switch routine will lead to your 2012 downfall. the country is not a ship of fools willing to be defrauded again.

[Vincent Stevens]

03:53 PM on 04/21/2012

Right on the money. Ignore those cranky trolls.

[LilBunnyNC]

11:37 PM on 04/20/2012

Ya can't rob peter to pay paul ....You bunch of thieving Liberals !!!!

[christophla]

06:45 AM on 04/21/2012

Go to church.

[MyNameIsMickey]

12:53 PM on 04/21/2012

Intelligent comment. For a third grader.

[LilBunnyNC]

11:34 PM on 04/20/2012

There are thousands that are just to lazy to help themselves . They want Obamabucks
They are called Freeloaders ,paid for by working tax payers ... The number of freeloaders are rising to a astounding amount of 44 million people ...... Toomy is right . They are much less that truly needs and deserves assistance

[MyNameIsMickey]

12:54 PM on 04/21/2012

1 out of 5 children go hungry in the U.S. GOP and LilBunnyNY's philosophy? Let'em starve.

[Vincent Stevens]

03:56 PM on 04/21/2012

The Toomy/Lu bunny project... poor= freeloader=useless eaters. Next steps, elimination of useless eaters and social derelicts and heretics. Sound familiar?

[Eris23Skidoo]

10:30 PM on 04/21/2012

Sounds like a certain right-wing plan that came out of Germany in the 1930s.

[LilBunnyNC]

11:17 PM on 04/20/2012

Toomy is right . Ifall the folks getting these Government benefits , food stamps , etc would get off their lazy butts America would see a decline in freeloaders

[David Conklin]

07:37 PM on 04/21/2012

I'm retired and I get food stamps. I worked way too many hours at too low of pay to have anyone say that I was lazy!

[Eris23Skidoo]

10:32 PM on 04/21/2012

What about those free-loaders who, instead of working, watch other people work and then bet on the results? I'm talking about the "investor class". I'm talking about the top 1% who only pay 13% or so like Mitt Romney. I'm talking about those people who hide money overseas forcing everyone else to pay higher taxes to make up the difference.

[SURFERMOM]

10:15 AM on 04/23/2012

He should be paying 28% on his investments and not be allowed to hide all his multi-millions in offshore accounts.Middle class tax rates could be lowered then, small business taxes could be lowered.The rest of us could stop carrying the tax burden for the ultra rich.

[MovieGuy2010]

05:53 PM on 04/20/2012

What always fascinates me is, middle class, even lower middle class people vote these clowns in.

Clearly their class hatred looking down (those poor freeloaders are taking my taxes) blinds them to fact WAY MORE of their taxes go to Ethanol and Energy Subsidies, and Boondoogle Miltary Spending, and all kinds of other corporate welfare.

Plus, while theirs and every other middle class income has been flat for 30 years, the wealthest net worth as soared?

These are the kind of people that now love to tout "The rich pay XXXX percentage of the taxes...."

So math challenged are they that, if that is true, and the rich are in fact paying THE LOWEST TAX RATES seen since the 1920s...

The reason they are paying such a higher percentage is...(here's the math part)

THEY HAVE ALL THE MONEY!

In fact Liberals would PREFER the tax burden was more evenly shared, but that would mean that the MIDDLE CLASS would have to make more money?

So, Toomey gets elected by guys who have every reason to vote against him, except, they are more worried about some faceless OTHER getting a free ride, then the fact they themselves are getting screwed.

http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics-Washington-Richer-Turned/dp/1416588698

http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Legal-Campaign-Benefit-Everybody/dp/1591840198

[moutonnoir]

05:42 PM on 04/20/2012

freedom from choice..... is what we want....

[moutonnoir]

05:28 PM on 04/20/2012

yes... 50% of the country has ZERO access to medical help if something happens...

something like 20% of the country is living at or below poverty.. tens of millions of jobs lost and generally assumed 'never to be returning', the middle or end of a era defining recession.

But no - everyone is fine, except the job-creators - they need tax breaks to feel good about brining back 50,000 of those 12,000,000 lost jobs.

[southred]

08:37 PM on 04/21/2012

I agree......I am waiting on the list of jobs they have created....

[vogonpoet42]

03:40 PM on 04/20/2012

Republicans seem to adopt the "ostrich" approach to poverty: bury ones head in the sand and pretend it does not exist.

[mazzo]

08:24 PM on 04/20/2012

That seems to be their approach to math and science too!

[MyNameIsMickey]

12:55 PM on 04/21/2012

They know it exists. They don't care. Its called greed.

[morbius]

12:32 AM on 04/27/2012

Yep... absolutely right. They want a feudal state. I've said it on here many times; they never deny it.

[parisnoire]

02:01 PM on 04/20/2012

Lot's of things I could say to you, Pat Toomey, but I don't think they would print them. So I will just say: keep talking buddy, keep talking. It is always better when people show you the level of their stupidity first hand. You are doing so much of our work for us.

[Meredith Bayer Barbieri]

01:57 PM on 04/20/2012

Instead of making absurd and decidedly false statements, I wish the GOP would just say what they really mean: "If you're poor it's 100% your fault so it's 100% not our problem and we don't care about you." I respect people who are honest about their position. But to pretend there is no problem so you don't have to take a stance on said problem? Poverty is a complicated problem and there are many reasons why people end up poor, but it's a problem that affects, or will eventually affect, everyone unless both parties agree that it exists. Perhaps the ways in which poverty is currently dealt with do not work? In many cases they don't and there are people who either take advantage of the system or fall through the cracks entirely. But, you can't just write off everyone that needs help. At the very least come up with a creative solution if you don't like the current solutions. The GOP offers nothing. If you criticize you should be required to come up with an alternative to the thing you are criticizing. When are some of the people who vote republican going to realize they are the people for whom the GOP has great disdain. Last I checked the South was pretty poor yet the South votes for a lot of republicans.