Five-term House Democrat Hank Johnson (D-GA) fears that the recently approved budget from the "free marketers" House Republicans will lead to "violence."
In an interview on WABE radio's "A Closer Look" last week, Johnson explained why he voted against the GOP budget, which would eliminate the deficit in less than ten years. The major problem: it would lead to a violent uprising of the "have-nots."
JOHNSON: If we’re not careful the have-nots of this country will rise up like the people in Baltimore. What happened in Baltimore stems from deeper economic issues and if you would take a ride down the streets of some of the greatly impoverished areas of Baltimore where change has not come, where things are the same as they were 50 years ago and have been allowed to grow worse then you will understand the lack of hope of which those riots are born from.
When asked by host Denis O'Hayer if he was referring to the protests in Baltimore or the violence that devastated the city, Johnson made clear that he meant the riots.
JOHNSON: No, I’m saying in terms of the violence and it’s unfortunate.
The incredulous host again sought clarification:
O'HAYER: You’re saying budgets like this can lead to violence?
JOHNSON: Yes, I am.
CNS News points out that Johnson has repeatedly used the term "free-marketers" as what he perceives as an insult to conservatives, saying, "I’ll tell you the free-marketers have been winning of late and it’s to the detriment of this country."
Johnson is the same Congressman who infamously said in a 2010 House Armed Services Committee meeting that he feared that if the U.S. stationed 8,000 troops and their families on the Guam, it would "become so overpopulated that it will tip over and capsize."
And of course there was Johnson's impassioned anti-Tea Party plea in 2013 for helium reserve funding, where he asked the Speaker to "imagine a world without balloons":
