John Goober Kennedy: The Louisiana Senator Thinks Poor People Are Faking It.

Senator John Kennedy is a bad caricature of a southern gentleman and he masquerades around Capitol Hill as a folksy “just asking questions” kind of fella. In reality, he’s a wealthy, elite, fraud with a $20 million net worth who attended Oxford. Despite representing the poorest state in America, this Louisiana senator took his allotted time at a hearing with the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to review how poverty is calculated and take issue with it. So this is our response. Resources Senator John Kennedy: Kennedy questions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on poverty data in Senate Banking Committee USAFacts: What is the poverty rate in Louisiana? World Population Review: Poorest U.S. States 2026 The Data Center: Health as resilience capacity in New Orleans: The critical role of community-based collaborations Prison Gerrymandering Project: Federal Census policy harms Louisiana’s democracy — but state lawmakers can fix it Wikipedia: John Kennedy (Louisiana politician) Buzzfeed News: John Kennedy Is America’s Folksiest Senator. Some People Who Know Him Say It’s An Act. Quiver Quantitative: Senator John Kennedy has filed a new financial disclosure - here’s what we see UNFTR Resources Video: Senator Questions Poverty Calculations | Here's Why That's INSANE Essay: John Goober Kennedy: The Louisiana Senator Thinks Poor People Are Faking It. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.