Allen West Seems To Think That Washingtonians Are Doing Really Well, Financially

Florida Tea Party-styley Congressman Allen West

They said the Tea Party lawmakers would never be co-opted by the establishment elite! And yet, Adam Serwer captures Florida Tea Party-styley Congressman Allen West already well-fitted for Beltway blinders:

WEST: I think that we need to extend those tax cuts permanently across the board. Look, I come from a -- an area down in South Florida where unemployment is at 13 percent, foreclosures are absolutely high. We are seeing closed upon closed storefronts. But yet, when you walk around here in Washington, D.C., you don't see people getting laid off, you don't see, you know, anyone suffering, you don't see the foreclosures.

Oh, dear! Serwer quickly dispenses with the essential Washington, DC economic walking tour:

According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute,unemployment in Ward 8 was 26.5 percent in 2009. The foreclosure rate in Ward 7 is 21.4 percent.

The unemployed in D.C., nearly 71% of whom are black, are disproportionately more likely to have worked low-wage jobs prior to being unemployed, and about a third of them have been looking for work for more than six months.

Of course, Congressman West is absolutely right that most of the people he's encountered at the Capitol Hill Club are doing pretty well in this economy, and my guess is that the story will be much the same over at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse.

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