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.
Show Notes
Clips
Episode Timestamp + Link | Clip Link
- 00:01:41 + 00:03:23 | Senator John Kennedy: Kennedy questions Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on poverty data in Senate Banking Committee
- 00:03:01 + 00:07:39 | [Source Pending]
- 00:08:09 | Aaron Rupar: John Kennedy on Larry Kudlow
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
Image Source
- Treasurer Ron Henson from USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.
UNFTR Quick Links