Kansas nasty

Ever since Sam Brownback left the Senate to run and become Governor of Kansas, the poor and middle class in that state have been overtaxed and underserved. The latest injury is a law the Kansas legislature wrote and the Governor signed which limits the amount of money welfare recipients (who aren’t getting huge sums from the state anyway) can withdraw using their welfare debit card at an ATM to $25 a pop. This presents several problems for the poor recipient: first, the idiot legislators themselves seem never to have used ATMS, or they’d know the machines don’t distribute money except in $20 increments. No $5 bills are stocked. Second, each usage of the card in the machine generates a fee for the bank that owns it. The more cash is required (know anyone whose rent is $20? I didn’t think so), the more fees are generated, which means less money for the recipient to spend on food and shelter.

The Washington Post posted an article about this law in its Thursday editions online, which caused such a ruckus that the Governor “hastened to assure a reporter” that the law didn’t come from his office. Ah, the newspaper’s editors say, but you signed it. With fanfare.

BrownbackWelfare

Now the state’s politicians are being heavily scorned, and they’ve learned that they could lose up to $102M in federal block grant money because

The Social Security Act requires states to ensure that recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, “have adequate access to their cash assistance” and can withdraw money “with minimal fees or charges.”

The Kansas law clearly limits access to benefits, and it would require recipients to pay frequent withdrawal fees, thus violating the rules as stated above. Now the state politicians are running away from the legislation as fast as they can.

One hopes the nasty mean-minded self-righteous jerks amend or reverse the law very soon.