Instead Of Addressing REAL Issues, House Passes Bill Targeting The Poor

The House passed a bill that prohibits welfare recipients from using their government subsidy in strip clubs, liquor stores and casinos. It’s sad that rather than actually pursuing government fraud and waste on a large scale, they continue to villainize the poor–as if most welfare recipients ARE actually spending their money in strip clubs, liquor stores and casinos.

By passing such a bill, The U.S. House of Representatives is making a commentary–an accusation against the poor, essentially painting them as frivolous spenders of government assistance. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter. The perception is that it MUST be true if they passed a law to prohibit it.

Have you ever stopped to think about why Congress, state, and local governments pass bills where there is no indication that a problem actually exists other than public perception? We saw this recently when various states demanded that welfare recipients take drug tests in order to obtain benefits–much to the surprise and chagrin of those who were oh so sure that the dirty, trifling, lazy, shiftless, low-class, ignorant, hypersexual, baby-daddy-having Blacks poor people spent most their time getting high. In fact, the vast majority of those tested were actually drug free.

These examples illustrate how the government actually legislates public opinion–in this case the message that welfare recipients spend their money in casinos, strip clubs, and liquor stores. They pass a bill for a perceived problem, or something they want you to perceive as a problem, and then most people accept that the target is a problem–when in fact, that may not be true.

House bans welfare recipients’ money from strip clubs, liquor stores

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that prohibits welfare recipients from using their government subsidy in strip clubs, liquor stores and casinos.

The measure easily received the necessary support of two-thirds of House members, with 395 voting in favor and only 27 opposing.

House Republicans introduced and promoted the proposal as a way to eliminate government wasteful spending. It has passed the House before, and they re-introduced it again hoping it will become part of a bill to extend the payroll tax credit, which both the House and Senate is expected to debate this month.

The Senate has not agreed to take up the measure. Source: CBS News