Ken Cuccinelli Has Rewrite Notes

Acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli has developed a penchant for rewriting the words on America's national monuments. In an attempt to defend the Trump administration's move to deny green cards to immigrants who are likely to use government benefits like housing subsidues or food stamps, Cuccinelli suggested changing the plaque on the Statue of Liberty from

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

to

"Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge."

Stirring words indeed. But Cuccinelli did not stop at Lady Liberty. Unaired in the NPR interview were his recommendations for other symbols of our great nation.

Cuccinelli's proposed engraving of the Jefferson Memorial's interior:

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. For everything else, bring cash."

At Gettysburg National Military Park:

"None of the men who fought here was on Medicaid."

A re-imagining of the carved inscriptions inside the Lincoln Memorial: 

"Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip
Mum mum mum mum mum mum
Get a job."

And, of course, the new welcome message at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum:

"You are not welcome here."