Walker and other masters of the dog whistle

Republicans politicians have perfected the art of kicking the poor which Scott Walker has translated into finely-tuned dog-whistles.

Let's look at few.

  * There's this one posted April 10th on the GOP Wisconsin Governor's taxpayer paid website:

We believe welfare should be more like a trampoline and less like a hammock.

The statement was made in support of part of a multi-city tour

Walker signing one of his hammock-flipping measures in Milwaukee

during which Walker signed several campaign-year welfare 'reform' measures.

Though he seems to have lifted it much of it from his ally, House Speaker/Quitter Paul Ryan, circa 2012:

“But we don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives,” Ryan added.

Don't forget that Ryan had found hammock-riders in America's inner cities:

“We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” Ryan said. 

And former GOP State Senator and Walker backer Glenn Grothman, as he prepared to take his sat in the House Congress in Ryan's caucus had spotted what sounded like hammock-occupying single-mothers living off welfare 'bribes,' too:

"...a single parent with a couple kids can easily get $35,000 a year in total benefits between the health care and the earned income credit and the FoodShare and the low-income housing and what have you," Grothman said. "And that's after taxes. How many people make $35,000 a year after taxes? Most people don't.

"When you look at that amount of money, which is in essence a bribe not to work that hard or a bribe not to marry someone with a full-time job, people immediately realize you have a problem. Then as soon as you realize you have a problem and something has to be done, then you look at the generosity of the benefits and see what you can do to pare them back."

* So maybe Walker will trade that shabbily-manufactured hammock slogan for the kind of old-timey-Ronald Reagan welfare queen inspired demagoguery we recently saw on the Wisconsin Governor's official Twitter feed:

Verified account @GovWalker Apr 10

Our welfare reforms also set common sense asset limits on public assistance so people with big mansions and fancy cars don’t get welfare checks while hard-working taxpayers have to pay the bills.

* And this one he told to cheering volunteers in West Bend during his 2014 campaign:

"My belief is we shouldn't be paying for them to sit on the couch, watching TV or playing Xbox," Walker told cheering Republican campaign volunteers last week in West Bend.

* And he can always reprise the infamous one-liner he got off before the crowd in Oconomowoc Lake during the 2012 recall election: 

People do not want to see Wisconsin "become another Milwaukee," Walker said.