Good News, Kansas Poors, You're Allowed To Eat Food Again

Typical Kansas ATM line.

Good news! Kansas hasdecidedbeen compelled to reverse course on its cute little idea for how poors should be able to get TANF benefits, but shouldn't be able to actually access those benefits, due to how they're not allowed to pull more than $25 per day in welfare moneys out of the ATM, which pretty much precludes people from being able to do long-term meal planning and the like. Also makes it hard to pay any other bills that cost more than $25! And of course, those $25 withdrawals each came with a $1 fee to the state, and often more fees on top of that, paid directly to banks, because fuck you poors, if you don't like it, shouldn't you just not be poor?

Sorry, wingnut Kansas legislators and Gov. Brownback, but the federal government, and also the Kansas Department for Children and Families, have a proposal of their own, and it's that y'all should eat hot shit on a stick:

Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, said Tuesday that federal officials objected to the limit, saying that it would prevent needy families from having “adequate access to their cash assistance.”

“This agency did not propose the $25 cash assistance withdrawal limit,” Gilmore said in a news release. “This was an amendment offered during legislative debate. At the time of discussion on the floor, DCF advised against such a low limit. I’m pleased that we now have the guidance we needed to rescind this measure.”

Now before you get all excited and think, oh, Phyllis Gilmore, now she's a Kansas government lady we can support, do understand that the DCF supported the bill in its original form, which limited ATM withdrawals to $60 per day, OOH THE RICHES. But good on her agency for realizing that $25 per day is downright insane.

Of course, we did say Kansas was "compelled" to do this, and here is why:  The state gets $102 million per year from the feds in a block grant to be used for TANF benefits, and federal law actually states that those receiving the benefits must “have adequate access to their cash assistance” and be able to withdraw their moneys “with minimal fees or charges.” And why is that sort of law even necessary? Because of states like Kansas, which wake up in the morning thinking, "Ooh I'm Kansas, and you are poor, let me fuck you up hard!"

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At press time, Kansas poors were still prohibited from using all their ludicrous amounts of money ($429 for a family of three, on average) for Caribbean cruises and palm-readings and strip clubs and concerts and sportsball games, because those are all the sorts of things poor people like to do with their LITERAL MOUNTAINS OF MONEY.

Enjoy "eating," Kansas poors, but please keep watching your backs, as your state will find a new way to fuck you by tomorrow.

[ KCUR 89.3 FM / McClatchy / Think Progress   via   Crooks & Liars ]