How low will they go?
In Minnesota, Republicans are proposing a law which would make being poor in that state a crime.
Really.
If you're poor, and you have $20 in your pocket, you're going to jail.
And that's a step up.
The original bill would have made it a crime for a poor person to have ANY cash in their pocket.
Here is the article.
The bill has to do with state debit cards issued for income assistance.
On March 15, Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee testified in front of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171. Buechner told committee members, “We would like to address the provision that makes it illegal for MFIP [one of Minnesota’s welfare programs] families to withdraw cash from the cash portion of the MFIP grant - and in fact, appears to make it illegal for MFIP families to have any type of money at all in their pockets. How do you expect people to take care of business like paying bills such as lights, gas, water, trash and phone?”
I guess the gist is that they have completely bought into the "welfare queen" zombie lie.
But wait. It gets better.
House File 171 would make it so that families on MFIP - and disabled single adults on General Assistance and Minnesota Supplemental Aid - could not have their cash grants in cash or put into a checking account. Rather, they could only use a state-issued debit card at special terminals in certain businesses that are set up to accept the card.
Only special "state-owned" terminals in "state-approved" businesses. How very Soviet of them.
Meanwhile, they have narrowed the requirements for obtaining the cards so much that there is sure to be a constitutional challenge to the law.
More from Ms Buechner's testimony:
Buechner testified, “We’ll leave you with this. It is not right to punish a whole group because of the supposed actions of a few. You in this room could have a pretty rough time if that was the case. It is not right to stigmatize and dehumanize women living the hard life of trying to raise children while living 60% below the poverty level. It is not right to use racist, bumper-sticker hate to inflict human misery for political gain.”
So basically, these people want the unemployed poor to not be able to proactively look for work; Instead, they want them to stay home and "stay poor because they don't give a damn", in a bizarre attempt to prove Republicans right about poor people.
So much for "small government".
And we spend much of our time bashing the President while they try to get away with this barbarity.
Matthew 25 be damned, according to Republicans.