An Arkansas Republican was brutally roasted after claiming that being poor was “a personal choice” on Twitter.

Arkansas Rep. Stephen Meeks is a firebrand Conservative who earlier this week retaliated against the state’s supreme court by defunding it during a budget battle.

“Being poor in America is a personal choice, unless there are mitigating circumstances,” he tweeted. “A homeless man can go to school, get a job driving a truck making $70k per year and in 20 years become a millionaire. In America you can work hard and change your future – if you chose.”

Why don't poor people just buy more money?: A Memoir https://t.co/cYay9ZVhV0

— jordan (@JordanUhl) November 17, 2018

The responses were brutal, with many suggesting staging a story of Trading Places experiment where Meeks demonstrate the validity of his claim by driving a truck until he was a millionaire.

Here's an idea. Lets repossess Meeks' home, empty his bank account, leave him on the street, and see how soon he becomes a millionaire.

— Carol Nissenson (@nissenson) November 17, 2018

I'd like to see him lose literally everything and start from scratch with bad credit. Then he would be in the same boat as his poorest constituents in Arkansas. If they knew how poorly he saw them they'd kick his ass out of town.

— Johnny, awaiting Cthulhu's awakening (@Enjoneer01) November 17, 2018

Related: where are all of these millionaires making 70k a year?

— reduced row echelon form (@JamesSharpsteen) November 17, 2018

Simple. Just don’t have any money taxed and don’t spend a penny of it and in about 15 years you will have earned a million dollars. Can’t believe more people aren’t doing that. Also not paying for said education.

— Dan Krumsiek (@Krum_siek) November 17, 2018

is that how you got rich

— KT NELSON (@KrangTNelson) November 17, 2018

Blessed is he who blames the poor for their poverty.

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 17, 2018

“When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character.

This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor.

But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw.

Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.”
–@sarahkendzior

— Alyson Smith (@PedsAly) November 17, 2018

Vast majority of poor are children, elderly, disabled, students, caregivers, temporary unemployed

— Matt Bruenig (@MattBruenig) November 17, 2018

As of 2016, Arkansas ranked 45th in people below the poverty line (17.2%) but 14th in unemployment (4%). Tell us again about those bootstraps.

BTW, 23.5% of all children in Arkansas live below the poverty line.

— Leo, the unpardoned turkey🦃 (@therealtonyleo) November 17, 2018

Putting that degree from the Bart Simpson School of Personal Finance to good use pic.twitter.com/MNFW4EpdMZ

— Joe K. (@WastelandHound) November 17, 2018

Meeks was a computer technician before taking office. He does have experience in the blue-collar world—he delivers Papa John’s pizzas on weekends.)

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