Michael Savage Calls the Gulf Oil Spill Victims Welfare Deadbeats

On his radio show today Michael Savage went one step further than the rest of the Right on the subject of the Gulf oil spill. Instead of simply defending BP, he blamed the victims of the spill. Savage said, “They haven’t worked most of their lives down there…It’s a welfare state. They think they’re entitled to a government check after Katrina.”

Media Matters:

In response to a caller asking why all the people who are unemployed and on welfare in the Gulf aren’t rounded up and forced to work for BP, Savage said, “Do you think that the deadbeats on welfare want to get their hands dirty, when they can stay at home, and smoke, and drink, and fornicate? Why would they leave their nests when the government is sending them a nice check? They’re laying on their behinds. They haven’t worked most of their lives down there…It’s a welfare state. They think they’re entitled to a government check after Katrina.”

See what Savage did there? He ignored any responsibility that BP has for causing the worst environmental disaster in US history so that he could blame the victims, who according to him are all lazy welfare bums. The problem is that the people who have had their livelihoods taken away from them were those who depended on the water or tourism to make a living. A shrimper or a fisherman is not dependant on a government check. All the people that people that work in the service industries that depend on tourism are not lazy and on welfare.

This kind of divisive hate speech is exactly why Michael Savage is banned from entering the UK. Savage was playing on a stereotype which became popular on the Right after Hurricane Katrina, but in this case, he is using it to defend BP, and claim that because the victims of the oil spill are, “lazy” they deserve nothing. Savage’s comments are an example of the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps mentality taken to the extreme, and every Gulf resident, and American citizen, should be offended by his comments.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association