Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack does not have a high opinion of many Americans.
This year, Speaker Paul Ryan has tapped a new chairman for his own former haunt, the House Budget Committee.
And the man he picked, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, is a colorful character to say the least.
As a video of his town hall meeting in West Fork in February of last year shows, Womack takes a very dim view of not only of many of his constituents, but struggling Americans who rely on government programs in general:
We have got to a point where we are providing billions and billions and billions of dollars for people who wont, not for people who cant, Womack said. The crowd, which had filled the room to more than three times capacity, shouted him down angrily.
In our society, Womack went on, we have made it really easy for people to stay on the couch, eat their potato chips, get their Section 8 housing, get their SNAP benefits, get all these other benefits.
His constituents again protested. Your biggest welfare is corporate, one woman told him. And what percentage of our budget goes to SNAP? (The answer is, just over 2 percent.)
Womack plowed on with his condescending diatribe against Americans who are struggling most. I had a conversation with a job creator down in Polk County, he said. Hes got two issues with hiring people ... first one is, theyre having a hard time finding people with the proper skillsets ... the second problem they have is, even if they can produce a skillset, they cant pass a urine test!
This man, bear in mind, will now be in charge of the congressional committee that reviews all bills and resolutions relating to the federal budget.
He will have a wide latitude to cut federal programs that, in his view, are causing people to sit around eating chips or taking drugs.
