In the opening monologue of his talk show, Real Time Host Bill Maher suggested that disaster victims in Florida and Texas somehow don’t deserve the $15 billion in federal aid money being allocated for the cleanup efforts after Hurricane Harvey – and now Hurricane Irma – devastated their states and forced millions from their homes.
Maher’s remarks are the latest in a wave of shockingly callous comments from liberals, including a Florida professor who was fired for suggesting that residents of southwest Texas deserved to suffer Hurricane Harvey’s devastation. Even some media organizations published controversial comics characterizing storm victims as immoral foolish racists who deserve whatever horrible occurances befall them.
Maher suggested – incorrectly – that red states somehow pay less in federal income taxes, and therefore shouldn’t be “bailed out” by the feds when natural disasters occur. Of course, this ignores the billions of dollars in federal income taxes that Texans pay to the Federal government every year.
He also added that, because the state’s political leaders don’t believe in man-made climate change, their residents should be forced to confront what Maher judged to be a symptom of rising global temperatures. We didn’t realize Maher was so well-versed in meteorology.
“These places that got flooded, like Texas, okay, they have a low tax base,’ Maher said on his show “Real Time” on Friday. “So, the federal government bails them out. Their governors, their legislators they don’t believe in climate science.”
Of course, it’s only fair that liberal states continue to receive federal disaster aid. After all, residents of wealthy liberal states – “responsible people” in Maher’s words – pay more in taxes and virtuously recognize the dangers of man-made climate change.
He griped that “it’s unfair” that conservatives, who try to cut government spending at every turn, would come running to the Feds for help when they’re in trouble.
“It seems like the responsible folks in this country, the people who pay a little more taxes and the people who believe in climate change are bailing out the people who hate government, except when they need government when they’re in trouble,” he continued. “That seems a little unfair.”
“Suddenly, socialism is not such a bad idea when you’re standing in toxic floodwater.”
Maher’s divisive – not to mention shockingly cruel – jokes are yet another symptom of the bitter divisiveness that casts a pall over modern America. As we reported yesterday, a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal/NBC News confirmed what many Americans have suspected for a long time: The US was a country rife with political, economic and cultural divisions long before President Trump rode down that escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015.
Though judging by what passes for humor on liberal-leaning talk shows, these divisions are only growing wider.