Posted on 05/25/2015 10:49:19 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Last week my colleague Simon Maloy caught us up with the latest on Kanses Gov. Sam Brownback’s famous Arthur Laffer “petri dish” experiment, in which he slashed taxes and government programs in order to usher in a Republican free market economic utopia. The experiment looks like it’s blowing up the lab:
[T]he Brownback/Laffer tax scheme hasn’t goosed the Kansas economy and it doesn’t look like it will any time soon. It has succeeded marvelously, though, in redistributing wealth to the top of the income ladder, while, at the same time, screwing over the people at the bottom. While the rich soaked up the lion’s share of the tax windfall, the poorest Kansas families actually saw their tax burden tick up a little bit.
And when it comes to screwing the poor, Kansas Republicans are proving to be among the more creative and heartlessly depraved groups of legislators in the country. Last month, the Legislature passed a resolution barring welfare recipients from spending their benefits at swimming pools, movie theaters, casinos, tattoo parlors, and strip clubs. It’s a dehumanizing and paternalistic policy that assumes the poor are undeserving of simple diversions like going to see a movie, or are scamming the government to finance their gambling and/or stripper habits.
And that’s not all. He points out that Brownback and company have devised one of those cunning Scrooge-like plans to take money that’s needed to put food in little children’s mouths and give it to big banks. Here’s how Max Ehrenfreund at the Washington Post described it:
A dollar bill is a special kind of thing. You can keep it as long as you like. You can pay for things with it. No one will ever charge you a fee. No one will ask any questions about your credit history. And other people won’t try to tell you that they know how to spend that dollar better than you do.
For these reasons, cash is one of the most valuable resources a poor person in the United States can possess. Yet legislators in Kansas, not trusting the poor to use their money wisely, have voted to limit how much cash that welfare beneficiaries can receive, effectively reducing their overall benefits, as well.
The legislature placed a daily cap of $25 on cash withdrawals beginning July 1, which will force beneficiaries to make more frequent trips to the ATM to withdraw money from the debit cards used to pay public assistance benefits.
Since there’s a fee for every withdrawal, the limit means that some families will get substantially less money.
Imagine making it so that banks can collect extra fees from mothers with small children who are trying to feed them on less than four hundred dollars a month. How cruel do you have to be to think that making them only carry 20 dollars cash will somehow teach them a lesson?
But this is what’s happening in states governed by miserly Republicans who are determined to wring every last dime out of people who have nothing and give it to people who have more than they can spend in a lifetime. In Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, for instance, they are making long lists of prohibited foods for those who use SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs.) The list of other prohibited purchases includes “herbs, spices, or seasonings,” all nuts, red and yellow potatoes, smoothies, spaghetti sauce, “soups, salsas, ketchup,” sauerkraut, pickles, dried beans sold in bulk, and white or albacore tuna.
They were particularly adamant that nobody on the program be allowed to eat shellfish, lobster in particular, which seems odd considering that it’s Wisconsin and the lobster catch there is decidedly small. (In fact, it’s non-existent.) I’m sure you’ll be surprised to learn that this lobster hysteria stemmed from a Fox News documentary which seems to have been the catalyst for these crackdowns on foodie welfare cheats. Media Matters reported on it back in 2013:
>>> Prior to its August 9 airing, Fox News hyped the special, “The Great Food Stamp Binge,” on Fox News Insider, FoxNews.com, and several of its daytime shows. Each preview focused on Jason Greenslate, a freeloading surfer who Fox correspondent John Roberts interviewed in Southern California. FoxNews.com described Greenslate at length in an article that teased the “new documentary”:<<<
“The Fox News Reporting documentary profiles, among others, a California surfer and aspiring musician named Jason Greenslate. Greenslate shows how he supports his beach-bum lifestyle with food stamps, while dismissing the idea of holding down a regular, steady job.
“‘It’s not that I don’t want a job, I don’t want a boss. I don’t want someone telling me what to do. I’m gonna live my own life,’ Greenslate tells Fox News’ John Roberts. ‘This is the way I want to live. And I don’t really see anything changing. I got the card. It’s $200. That’s it.’”
As promised, “The Great Food Stamp Binge” labeled Greenslate “the new face of food stamps,” devoting two full segments to his lifestyle in a shameless attempt to characterize SNAP recipients as freeloaders.
Yes, he was shown eating lobster on screen. Since Fox News viewers are the most misinformed people in the universe (well, America anyway) and elected Republicans seem to be among Fox News’ most ardent fans, it stands to reason that some California surfer hippie refusing to work would inflame them so much that they couldn’t see past it. Fox even had staffers deliver copies of the documentary to members of congress prior to a vote on cutting food stamps, just to make sure that hippie didn’t go unnoticed by even one Republican. You can bet it’s made the rounds of all the state houses as well.
Thanks but no thanks. I can barely cope with some of the comments on this side, ha!! Smile smile.
Limiting withdrawals to $25 a day does not “help” poor people. Not everyone lives near an ATM, and this could require some people to make more than a dozen trips to the ATM each month. Also, the fees for each withdrawal could add up to 10% of more of their money each month. This is dehumanizing, and I think the Republicans in Kansas who did this ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Nuts, potatoes, dried beans, and tuna are all very nutritious foods. Shame on Scott Walker and other Wisconsin Republicans for banning them for food stamp recipients.
You're right.
CRICKETS!
: )
Chicken.
Lol
I guess they’re just mean bastards. /s
Notice how they never give any details on what it means to "slash" government programs. That's because they aren't being cut by much at all.
Seems you are quick to believe the lies of the left.
Sorry; I went to the WIC page; white potatoes not permitted but sweet potatoes and yams are....weird. Bulk dried varietal beans also not allowed.
“The legislature placed a daily cap of $25 on cash withdrawals”. The article does not mention that an EBT card can be used in almost any store for any amount for allowed necessities. What would people be using cash for that they couldn’t get with the EBT card?
Yet legislators in Kansas, not trusting the poor to use their (emphasis added) money wisely,...
It isn't "their" money if they are on welfare. It belongs to the taxpayers who were forced to pay it to their government. And the government legislators elected by those taxpayers have the right to decide how those funds are to be used by those who receive them. With things come strings. If you don't like it, get a job and earn your keep. No one will bother you then about how you spend your money. (Except they'll force you to pay taxes.)
Nanny state crap ...the govt has not the authority to ban certain foods or limit atm withdrawal amounts. If dems had done this they would vilified here.
Great catch.
If the Left had their way, we’d all be getting monthly stipends like they get in Cuba.
Let’s see the cancelled checks where Heather wrote a check to pay for some poow wittle chidwen’s food.
You are correct in your logic. EBT is a more modern implementation of food stamps. The SNAP program was meant to help needy people obtain essential foodstuffs. It was not intended to provide cash, liquor, lobster dinners, movie tickets, vacations, or trips to the ballpark. Food stamps means food. Seems pretty clear to me. Anything other than (essential) food purchases would be an abuse of a taxpayer-funded program (i.e., fraud).
half of the infants in the U.S. are enrolled in WIC, according to USDA.
Now that’s scary.
I thought so too.
Funny. Looks like the liberal utopia of Maryland has similar restrictions on its WIC program - http://phpa.dhmh.maryland.gov/wic/docs/Vendor/2012%20Authorized%20Foods%20List-English.pdf
Lol!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.