When you go to the grocery store, do you pay attention to what the person in front of you is purchasing? Do you watch carefully to see how they pay? Oftentimes you will hear someone tell a story about how they saw someone purchase lobster, or an expensive cut of meat with food stamps. These anecdotal stories also drive anger toward the poor for wasting taxpayer money. And the accusations expand from there: The poor use the money for tattoos, drugs, and other frivolous items.
In Kansas this week, Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill into law that bans the use of public assistance funds to visit swimming pools, see movies, go gambling, or get tattoos. The entire bill, chock full of bad things, is here, if you want to read it.
One of the key items in the bill is a drug testing requirement, which has been proven to be a waste of time, resources, and money in other states that have tried it. This won’t be a rehash of several other diaries from the past year, but suffice it to say: Drug testing welfare recipients is a true waste of time and only benefits the drug testing companies.
The meat of the bill—and the truly degrading part—is here:
No TANF cash assistance shall be used to purchase alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco products, lottery tickets, concert tickets, professional or collegiate sporting event tickets or tickets for other entertainment events intended for the general public or sexually oriented adult materials. No TANF cash assistance shall be used in any retail liquor store, casino, gaming establishment, jewelry store, tattoo parlor, massage parlor, body-piercing parlor, spa, nail salon, lingerie shop, tobacco paraphernalia store,vapor cigarette store, psychic or fortune telling business, bail bond company, video arcade, movie theater, swimming pool, cruise ship, theme park, dog or horse racing facility, parimutuel facility, or sexually oriented business or any retail establishment which provides adult-oriented entertainment in which performers disrobe or perform in an unclothed state for entertainment, or in any business or retail establishment where minors under age 18 are not permitted.
Who knows where the state of Kansas is getting its information about how poor people are spending their TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) money, but it’s a safe bet the vast amount of them aren’t spending their benefits frivolously. And one item that is not on the list will surprise no one: If you are receiving welfare in Kansas, you can purchase a firearm with your your benefits.