Arthur Delaney—HuffPost:
Michigan Republicans are pushing a new, Donald Trump-inspired bill that would require Medicaid recipients in the state’s mostly black cities to work to keep their health benefits, but exempt some of the state’s rural white residents from the same requirement.
…
Under the bill, Medicaid recipients in 17 mostly white counties, all represented by Republican senators, would be exempt from the work requirements, according to an analysis by the Center for Michigan, a think tank. But Medicaid recipients in the six municipalities with the highest unemployment rates, including Detroit and Flint, would have to work at least 29 hours a week to keep their health benefits. All six cities have black majorities or significant numbers of black residents.
This quote from the bill’s supporters in the Michigan Chamber of Commerce takes the lily-white cake:
“We were just trying to be helpful,” Michigan Chamber lobbyist Wendy Block told HuffPost. “It was really just a simple suggestion, not one that we’re married to.”
Tell me again how we’re all equal before the law since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Chamber may not be married to this proposal, but America sure as shit is married to its self-image as the land of opportunity. Zero self awareness, there.
#contemporaryRacism
A Random Stroll 