Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Class warfare.]

"America is the richest country on Earth because we've been able to put capital together, and we've been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world."—Republican Congressman from California Darrell Issa, who is the single richest man in Congress. "Issa's personal wealth is by far the greatest of any congress member. His net worth in 2013 was $448.4 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and stems from a car alarm business he built."

CNN Money Anchor Cristina Alesci: As one of the wealthiest members of Congress, do you feel personally responsible at all to address income inequality here in the US?

Representative Darrell Issa: Absolutely.

[Text Onscreen: "Darrell Issa on income inequality."]

Issa: America is the richest country on Earth because we've been able to put capital together, and we've been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world. Uh, if you go to India, or you go to any number of other third-world countries, you have two problems: You have greater inequality of income and wealth; you also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have-not to the have—the quality of public education, the availability of that access. So, you know, I think America is a good example. Can we do better? I think we can.

Alesci: Yeah, I don't think the comparison really is the one we want to make, right? We don't wanna compare ourselves to India; we wanna set the bar pretty high, right? We wanna set the bar—

Issa: Why shouldn't we? No, no, it's— I appreciate your, your comment, uh, but you're wrong. You do have to compare yourself with the rest of the world. We compete with the rest of the world. If we're going to have people, uh, produce automobiles, they have to compete with the rest of the world. Uh, can we be better, smarter, and produce cars in, in Georgia, uh, that compete with Japan? Yes. Uh, can we produce certain things, uh, in spite of our high cost of labor? Absolutely. But we're in a global economy, and it's extremely important that we be able to amass capital, have a trained workforce, and, quite frankly, if we wanna get paid more, we have to be able to produce somehow better than many of those countries, including India.

I love the way he pivots from Alesci pointing out that comparing people in poverty in the US to people in poverty in other nations is bullshit (because the only relevant comparison is how people in poverty in the US are doing compared to wealthy people in the US) to defend the comparison by essentially saying that corporations make those comparisons in order to best decide which people are simultaneously the most profitable and exploitable, and then victim-blaming US workers by saying they have to be more competitive.

The richest man in Congress, everyone. The Republican Party, friends.