Kansas Bans Poor People From Spending Welfare On Cruise Ships

Huffington Post via MSN ^ | 4/04/15 | Arthur Delaney

[Libloather]

Kansas welfare recipients will be unable to get more than $25 per day in benefits under a new law sent this week to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's desk by the state legislature.

The bill also prohibits welfare recipients from spending their benefits at certain types of businesses, including liquor stores, fortune tellers, swimming pools and cruise ships.

"We're trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they were intended," state Rep. Michael O'Donnell (R) said, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. "This is about prosperity. This is about having a great life."

[Libloather]

Under the new rule, such a family receiving the maximum benefit would have to go to the ATM more than a dozen times to get the full benefit, which would be whittled away by an 85 cent fee for each withdrawal after the first one. And the local cruise liner ATM will no longer be an option.

They could always save and bring cash - no?

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve heard other stories the past few years, in which EBT cards were used at Disney Land, in Las Vegas casinos, and other vacation spots.

I think such uses of public assistance should be banned and punished.

I know liberals would say I am heartless and cruel and lacking compassion for my fellow man. But I think that anyone going on vacation should pay for it themselves. We do not owe public assistance recipients a trip to Disney Land. Heck, lots of working people would love to take their kids there but can’t afford it.

[PROCON]

But....but...but, they should be able to spend “their” money anyway they want.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This has to be RACIST!

Or BIGOTED!

Or HOMOPHOBIC!

Or perhaps logical.

[sagar]

There should be “welfare” moolah to begin with. If the freeloaders truly need it, they should be given packets of beans, bags of rice, ad bottle of cooking oil, etc. Make them cook their own food. Or, better yet, no gubmint handouts at all. If they are hungry enough, may be they will work for a change.

[CIB-173RDABN]

It is going to get ugly when the money runs out.

[Gunslingr3]

Under the new rule, such a family receiving the maximum benefit would have to go to the ATM more than a dozen times to get the full benefit, which would be whittled away by an 85 cent fee for each withdrawal after the first one.

Who gets to collect that fee?

[jospehm20]

Yes it is. I have been making that point whenever the subject comes up for a while now. I believe it is only a matter of time.

[Tennessee Nana]

and cut out the ability to get cash from the EBT cards...

cruise ships ???

for real ???

[unixfox]

Who gets to collect that fee?

Those evil banks.

[Mercat]

How about casinos?

[Gunslingr3]

I’ve heard other stories the past few years, in which EBT cards were used at Disney Land, in Las Vegas casinos, and other vacation spots.

I think such uses of public assistance should be banned and punished.

I would bet in almost all of those cases it is someone who has purchased the card at a discount from the welfare recipient.

If you limit public assistance to handing out weekly sacks of rice and beans most of this problem disappears.

Instead they hand out 'bad money' in the form of EBT cards that are then discounted by the market for 'good money' that can buy whatever a person wants. It's Gresham's Law, and man made law will never change it.

[stevio]

Flyover country is looking more and more inviting.

[jsanders2001]

> It is going to get ugly when the money runs out.

Only upside is the liberals will abandon their stupid ideologies once the SRHTF and they find out big daddy government was handing out everybody else’s money all along. And that hey killed the Golden Goose when they killed the middle class and capitalism. Its going to get really ugly for those nitwits. Reality can be a real beotch...

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh...It was a big deal here in NYS with the casinos. Don’t worry...they’ll just beer or whatever for cash with someone.

[entropy12]

Tax payers subsidizing the non-productive, dependent class for ocean cruises? What a great country!

Yakov Smirnoff says so!

[Gunslingr3]

It is going to get ugly when the money runs out.

Dirty little secret. They can print the money, so it will never 'run out' for the government.

With a fiat currency and a central bank ready and willing to buy it in any amount taxes aren't even necessary. Hell, they're useful to both parties as a club for the other side (freeloaders vs non-fair-share-payers).

The above observation isn't meant to imply that monetary inflation doesn't have its own deleterious effects (it is in fact more regressive, and a more subtle influence on the time preference for money and the real value of savings).

But it will never 'run out', they'll always use inflation to just take the purchasing power out of your wallet while leaving you the cash if they think they need to.

[MaxMax]

The very fact that the Gov has to inform the USERS who are spending EBT at
""liquor stores, fortune tellers, swimming pools and on Cruise Ships"" that
it will stop, means the Government knew this abuse was happening and allowed
it go get this far. It's abuse by both ends.

Those people should be sent to prison work camps to pay off
their debt to hard working tax-paying Citizens.

[Blackirish]

How many cruise ships are in Kansas? If this is what Brown back is spending his time on just quit.

[RWGinger]

This money loaded into EBT cards is in addition to getting Food stamps ( SNAP)
This cash is TANF( Temporary < 5 years> Assistance to Needy Families)
Add the cash and food cash to free cell phones free or reduced medical care, free or reduced housing
AND re is one of my complaints, kids who get free breakfast lunch and dinner, the parents still get the full food stamp money
which is hundreds and hundreds of millions of OUR money a year