Sunday, April 05, 2015

Now Kansas Republicans legislate misery to those on assistance

This article demonstrates the pure evil of Republicans. Either through their ignorance of what poverty is actually like or their outright cruelty, they are making live more and more difficult for the poor who live in Kansas. These changes are barbaric, even for them.

-សតិវអតុ

From Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner:

How many time have I heard of a person standing in line at a grocery store who saw someone use food-stamps to buy a candy bar or a stake and felt outraged because that persons was buying crappier food to save money.
I read comments from Yahoo News articles where common everyday citizens are outraged because societies losers, the people on welfare, are living high off the hog, getting free phones, homes and great food while everyone else suffers through the daily slog of shitty food and necessities.
Our Republican leaders know they have successfully created that impression that most poor people on assistance are doing nothing but sitting around getting all kinds of free stuff from the government and now our congress people have developed new ways to make people on assistance visibly miserable. So they have passed HB 2258. One parts of the bill would make it more difficult for recipients to access funds, allowing them to draw a maximum of $25 a day from ATMs. What will this actually do? Maybe it looks bad for these people to have too much money at one time. This will allow ATM machines to eat up most of their money in withdrawal fees. This won't actually save the taxpayers any money and somehow the government will have to spend money to enforce this rule.
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, said any limit could create significant problems for TANF beneficiaries. She said many of her constituents need to withdraw $600 to pay their rent on time each month. She called the amendment ludicrous and noted a large number of beneficiaries are mothers. She also, said her senate colleagues displayed ignorance of the realities of poverty in Kansas by passing House Bill 2258. She pointed out that most of these people work but just don't make enough money and they are eligible for TANF. Many are also eligible for food stamps.
But those criticism roll off the backs of politicians who probably have never even seem the poor people they try to punish.
The bill also prohibits Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients from using their cash benefits to make purchases in liquor stores, casinos, adult entertainment businesses and public swimming pools. How are they going to enforce such a law? And why the attack on swimming?
This time it's not about saving money, in fact these new rules will probably cost the taxpayer more in the long run to enforce. The Republicans now want to cash in on the anger they have fomented among middle class people that poor people get a free ride from the government.
Also the new law bans repeat drug offenders from food assistance for life along with anyone living in a home where anyone has committed welfare fraud. The Republicans don't seem to care if these people actually know about the fraud or not. It's all about how it looks to the voters.
There are also new restrictions cutting back on the time limit that a person can spend on TANF. At some point assistance to those in need will amount to $20 for one week and people will begin to wonder why the government gives out this kind of assistance at all since it covers virtually nothing.
There has been some opposition to this bill. Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, called the bill mean-spirited and said its purpose was to tie the hands of the next administration. Ignorance is the best thing that can be said of these Republicans. They might actually believe their own lies. That would explain the mean-spirited spite these people show towards those on the bottom rung of our society's ladder. They are attacking people who have failed in our society to get the good life we are promised by the pundits of this system. This seems to be the newest trend of the Republican Party. It's a lot like kicking a dog when it is down. When people are down on their luck, Republicans feel they must be made to feel ashamed and ridiculed.