Reich: GOP Will Attack the Poor This Year the Same Way They Attack ObamaCare

‘Republicans have tried to split the middle class from the poor, saying that the poor are your enemies ... and they’re lazy’

FARROW: "A lot of Democrats have come out and said this is an unacceptable budget, similar to what you were just describing. Do you think this could this be used as a cudgel, politically, much in the way that the right has often used ObamaCare?"
REICH: "That's the attempt, it's going to try to be used by Republicans as a cudgel. The Republicans have tried to split the middle class from the poor saying the poor are your enemies. They are different from you, you have to pay taxes and they are lazy. But the problem is that increasing numbers of middle class people are actually becoming poor or are being poor for a particular length of time. This economy is a very bad economy in case you haven't noticed. And a lot of of the increases in spending on the poor are really increases in spending on everybody who has lost jobs, not because they have been lazy, but because they have actually simply been part of a very, very bad economy. The other point to make is that this is not a deficit-reducing budget with regard to cutting programs for the poor. It increases spending on the military. And that's important to understand. This is a Republican budget."

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