Welcome to Bizarro Amerika!

"We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment."
--Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Feb. 27, 2011

Haley Barbour's colorful remark, made to The Washington Post while attending a National Governors Association meeting in Washington this week, recalls Ronald Reagan's description of a "welfare queen" living high on government largess, driving a Cadillac. In Reagan's telling, she bilked the government out of $150,000, when the actual case involved $8,000.

The Mississippi Republican, who is mulling a presidential run in 2012, worked for Reagan as director of the White House Office of Political Affairs in 1985-1986. Could Barbour have picked up some tips from the Great Communicator? Reagan's anecdote ultimately was deemed exaggerated and aberrational, but it created a lasting image that fed popular distrust of the welfare system.

Let's see if there is any basis for Barbour's claim.

The Facts

Medicaid provides health coverage for about 53 million lower-income Americans and is a shared responsibility of the federal government and states. The federal government picks up, on average, about two-thirds of the costs and sets the minimum rules for which groups of people must be covered and what medical benefits must be included.

Governors of both parties say they cannot afford the current Medicaid system because of the fiscal difficulties stemming from the recession. It was in this context that Barbour made his comment. He is pleading for the federal government to allow states to have the flexibility to expand cost-sharing measures with Medicaid enrollees -- a point he also made in an appearance Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"The problem is, federal regulations do not allow a provider to deny services to an individual on the basis of the individual's ability to pay. In addition, no cost-sharing measures can be imposed on many Medicaid enrollees, including children," Barbour told lawmakers.

Two days of inquiries to spokesmen for Barbour yielded no evidence or explanation for his statement, so we can't tell if his assertion about the BMW-driving patient is based on a documented study, an anecdote from a single pharmacist or a figment of Barbour's imagination. We presume we would have received an answer if there were something to back up the statement.

At the hearing, Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) asked Barbour about the BMW statement, but two witnesses said he did not provide an explanation. Unfortunately, there is no transcript yet available of the hearing.

Let's try a little bit of deductive reasoning.

Mississippi provides some of the lowest Medicaid benefits to working adults in the nation. A parent who isn't working can qualify only if annual family income is less than 24 percent of the poverty line. Working parents qualify only if they make no more than 44 percent of the federal poverty level. Seniors and people with disabilities are eligible with income at 80 percent of the poverty line. Pregnant women do better -- they're eligible with income up to 185 percent of the poverty level.

Translated from the federal poverty guidelines, that means a working Mississippi couple with one child could earn no more than $8,150 a year and still qualify for Medicaid, seniors and people with disabilities could earn no more than $8,700, and a pregnant woman could earn no more than $20,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the German-engineered BMW is a pretty fancy car. Edmunds.com says that new BMW car prices range from nearly $30,000 to more than $120,000. That seems out of the price range of someone making $8,000 a year.

Checking used BMWs worth less than $5,000 in Mississippi on Yahoo Used Cars finds 10 available within 300 miles of Jackson, the state capital -- but all carrying lots of miles. Four grand, for instance, would get you a 1996 BMW 328i with 237,000 miles on it. But even that, for many of Mississippi's Medicaid recipients, would be half a year's salary.

The Pinocchio Test

Given that you have to be rather poor to get on Medicaid in Mississippi, it seems highly unlikely the state has many Medicaid recipients driving around BMWs, even used ones. Note that Barbour said "we have people" -- suggesting this is not a rare event.

The failure of Barbour's aides to provide any documentation for this claim is rather suspicious. At least Reagan's anecdote was based on a real, though poorly remembered, newspaper article. We would welcome further explanation from Barbour, but until then this qualifies as a whopper.

Or he just plain flat out lied.  :D

i d k...

but i know what i have seen in the hood...and it doesn't suprise me if its true...

Despite prevailing stereotype, Whites, not Blacks, collect greatest share of public aid dollars

SAY the word "welfare" and immediately the image of the lazy Black welfare queen who breeds for profit surfaces in the minds of those who have come to believe the hideous stereotype. It is a myth that persists despite government figures and authoritative studies showing that Whites overwhelmingly reap the lion's share of the dole.

The image of the Black "welfare cheat," public aid advocates say, is based on misconceptions about poor minorities. The notion, they say, comes from society's resentment of seemingly ablebodied people getting paid for doing nothing.

"For some people, there is a need to believe that there are professional welfare recipients who are deliberately trying to get not only what they need to survive, but more," says Anne D. Hill, director of programs for the National Urban League. "People say to themselves: 'I work. How come this person who appears to be healthy isn't working?' We tend to equate our condition with others without fully knowing their circumstances."

and i don't why you

brought black and white into this...interesting

Every time someone mentions that there are different ethnicities doesn't preclude bias, prejudice or any other negative implication. If anything he was defending the stereotype against black people being all on the dole. There are a hugely disproportional amount of blacks in prison compared to whites. Just a fact, nothing more, nothing less

i'll copy and paste next time in notepad before i click post

Maybe you checked the wrong place? Maybe that black woman in the hood could afford her BMW?

May I suggest you check the local white trash trailer park for the welfare queen Bimmers?

 Majority of Welfare Recipients White

 (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n2_v48/ai_12970819/)

Interesting.  That really doesn't have to do with anything Barbour said.

As to whether it's a lie or not. Im not sure what the basis of that is.  Are you saying that there has been some sort of investigation done, and they've investigated every Medicaid receipent in Missisippi?

So lie?  Eh, I'll wait until the investigation of the entire medicaid population of MS is done.

Two days of inquiries to spokesmen for Barbour yielded no evidence or explanation for his statement, so we can't tell if his assertion about the BMW-driving patient is based on a documented study, an anecdote from a single pharmacist or a figment of Barbour's imagination. We presume we would have received an answer if there were something to back up the statement.

At the hearing, Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) asked Barbour about the BMW statement, but two witnesses said he did not provide an explanation.

"We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment."

To me, it's a deliberate factual mistatement.

So are you saying it's impossible to both have medicaid and have a BMW?

Please. Let's not do this over here, ok?

lie 2 (l)
n.
1. A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
2. Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.

Of course not! BMW's have been around for years! Why can't someone poor save up their money and buy a used driver's car for a couple of grand and drive it?

They can.  Which seems to make one of my points.  Thanks.

"We have people pull up at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say they can't afford their co-payment."

Given the regularity of pharmacies being robbed, wouldn't that pharmacy window have a camera? Wouldn't that camera be taking a picture of the welfare queen in her shiny new Bimmer while she's whining she can't afford her co-payment?

Wouldn't whomever passed this little gem of information along to Barbour (unless it was his speechwriter remembering the good ol' days when Barbour worked for Reagan) have had the tape of the welfare queen in her shiny new Bimmer whining she can't afford her co-payment?

Ahhhhh...I see where you're coming from. Barbour's right because somewhere out there there is a welfare recipient driving an old beat up BMW drawing benefits and such.

So, concievably, it is possible that person could possibly drive up to a pharmacy window and complain about not paying their co-pay.

But that's still not definitive. Barbour's statement is a statement of fact:

So where's his proof of that fact? As I said...

Until that shows up, Barbour's words will be lumped in with the lies of his fellow candidate, Gov. Mike.

If, accepting your proposition, that Barbour's comment is a "statement of fact" then you would need a statement of fact to disprove it.  All you are saying is that Barbour hasn't proven his statement, but neither have you.  That doesn't make Barbour correct but it doesn't make him a liar.  Particularly since we don't know what the origin of that statement is.

You guys on the left really misuse the word lie.  It's like you really don't know what it means.

it is odd...

while he admits it is possible...

he still maintains the statement is an out right lie...

A statement of fact...

there was an article written....fact...

it exposed no lie....fact...

lets examine it this way....howie

lets say you relate an expirence you had...i can't disprove it...nor can you prove it,

to the standards you are holding others too...should i just dismiss your attempt

to share your life experience with me based on your own view of how something is judged true or not ?

if so...is it fair to you...when you know in your heart it is the truth...just because you can't back it up with a photograph or audio recording...or even a witness ?

There will ALWAYS be people, in ANY entitlement program, that probably shouldn't be there.  Don't starve the rest to punish the assholes.  I'm all for removing fraud and non-means based participants.