Conservative African-American Congressman Allen West of Florida seems to have an obsession with slavery. For the second time in two weeks, West invoked the S-word to describe what he says President Obama and the Democrats are doing to Americans who are increasingly dependent on government assistance.
And for the second time in two weeks, we are writing about Rep. Allen West—so perhaps it is getting attention and coverage that the congressman is more obsessed with.
Anyway, this time Colonel West was appearing on Fox News to talk about the rise in people applying for entitlements like Social Security disability, which saw an increase in numbers last month of 85,000—greater than the 80,000 new jobs created.
“We’re creating this sense of economic dependence which, to me, is form of modern, 21st-century slavery,” West said. “We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and the indomitable spirit of the United States of America and not make more people get into government policies and programs.”
The implication of comments like West’s is that President Obama and the Democrats are purposely stifling entrepreneurs and discouraging them from creating new jobs so that they can make more Americans apply for public assistance and become dependent on the government. Thus his slavery analogy.
Last weekend, West said that Obama wanted to make Americans dependent because he would “rather you be his slave.” The Fox News host, Dave Briggs, gave West a chance to back away from the first slave comment, but the congressman forged right ahead.
“We should not regret telling the truth in the United States, that separates the politician from the statesman,” he said. “There are 7 million more Americans on the poverty rolls since the president took over, a 45 percent increase in food stamp recipients. When Nancy Pelosi ran the House, they raised unemployment benefits from 26, 27 weeks up to 99 weeks. They are creating a welfare entitlement class, trying to pit the production class against them.”
When the host asked if the increase in people needing assistance was merely an unfortunate consequence of the poor economy, West said it was “an unfortunate consequence of failed economic policies from the president.”
“Liberals have moved away from hope and change to a more divisive and more envious type of rhetoric, dividing us in order to separate us along those lines of gender, sexual orientation, or income level or class because the most important thing is to try to control and have power,” West said.
