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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Never met a poor person that created jobs': GOP senator mocks tax cut question
By Travis Gettys
Published May 30, 2025 1:23 PM ET
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) dismissed a student's question about the Republican tax cut bill by mocking poor people.
The Wisconsin Republican spoke Thursday at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he defended the extension of president Donald Trump's tax cuts when one of the students asked why the GOP bill focused on spending cuts instead of raising revenue to balance the budget.
"I'm a young person, and in your talk you talked a lot about how the deficit represents a transfer of wealth from young to old, and I'm sensitive to that," said student Joseph Hennessy. "Of course, you can't spend money that you don't have. But, of course, there are two ways to reduce the deficit. One is to cut spending and the other is to increase revenue. So I'm wondering why you're only focused on one half of that equation, cutting spending, and not opposing these massive tax cuts that disproportionately go to the wealthiest Americans who really don't need that tax cut and why we're looking at cutting things like Medicaid and funding for critical scientific research on the back of that."
https://www.rawstory.com/ron-johnson-tax-cuts-mock/
Hey Ronny..............where did you get your money..........if history is any indicator your money came from your wife and her family...........and PACUR...............so again your a dickhead..............there are a lot of people that are "poor" dickhead that created jobs...........they are called self employed..........like I was when I was delivering newspapers..............you really are a POS and yes you will vote to screw Wisconsinites out of Medicaid and Medicare and SNAP.......no doubt in my my mind............
yardwork
(68,971 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(132,821 posts)They do it to make money. They'd prefer that you work for them for free if it were possible.
ProfessorGAC
(75,852 posts)...they create jobs to grow the company which in turn makes them more money.
There were industrialists in our past that raised pay above market to both attract the best workers & to make customers of their workforce.
That's even happened in the last 30 years, so it's not just Henry Ford & an aging Carnegie.
Irish_Dem
(79,786 posts)They have no humanity left whatsoever.
Mad_Machine76
(24,936 posts)👀
bucolic_frolic
(54,038 posts)Your local roofer, landscaper, lawn crew ... motivated, and needing helpers. Furthermore it's small business that creates jobs, that grow. Billionaires don't create jobs, they invest, ok sometimes in VC and startups, but passively. Big business have no need of new employees in quantity. They hire expertise, experience. RoJo is an idiot. You always know when he starts making noise there's a slam a few days down the road.
Prairie Gates
(7,191 posts)Not only is it manifestly and empirically untrue (people create jobs all the time while struggling in new businesses), but it cuts against the very basic belief of capitalist entrepreneurship and upward mobility. If only the rich create jobs, then the whole goofball story of entrepreneurship that they've been selling us for 50 years is a lie.
What has gotten into these people? I don't expect them to give our objections to their bullshit ideology a fair hearing, but I expect them to keep their own stories straight from week to week!
CousinIT
(12,236 posts)The workers end up paying what the billionaires don't and / or suffer cut government services because of it.
IOW, trickle-down is BULLSHIT.
And the student is right. WE CAN NOT SIMPLY CUT OUR WAY OUT OF DEBT.
WE HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM AND WE CAN'T SOLVE IT UNTIL AND UNLESS WE ARE WILLING TO TAX THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALL THE MONEY: THE BILLIONAIRES AND BIG CORPORATIONS.
Response to turbinetree (Original post)
Ponietz This message was self-deleted by its author.
liberalhistorian
(20,900 posts)saw a business that didn't succeed thanks to the hard work of poorer people, who are rarely given any credit!
Ping Tung
(4,141 posts)misanthrope
(9,375 posts)Consumers create jobs.
lastlib
(27,542 posts)....to build flood protection around New Orleans, either.
(I could think of a thousand things to substitute for flood protection...)
Wiz Imp
(8,960 posts)So right there are 7 poor people who created thousands of jobs.
In this very short video, Robert Reich explains very well why Johnson is full of shit.
Basso8vb
(1,230 posts)I've never seen a billionaire create any wealth.
WE create all the fucking wealth they steal.
thought crime
(1,193 posts)Very few billionaires create wealth directly from profits. They get it from the stock market.
GoCubsGo
(34,665 posts)How many jobs has this motherfucker created? I mean, besides any recruitment he did for his Sweet Daddy Vlad.
milestogo
(22,581 posts)DFW
(59,730 posts)RoJo doesnt understand that a poverty of ideas and poverty of character are still severe forms of poverty.
synni
(673 posts)But of course, who would ever expect a Republican to be well-informed?
Paladin
(32,282 posts)Ten times smarter than anything that shithead Ron Johnson had to say.