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Kansas Poor Tax A Reflection Of Nationwide Fiscal Crisis
In the course of covering America’s deepening state and local government fiscal crisis, we’ve touched on Kansas quite a bit.
As a reminder, an ill-fated tax cut ‘experiment’ by Governor Sam Brownback contributed to a rather large funding gap which has in turn squeezed the public sector to the point that some schools have had difficulties making payroll. This well-publicized scenario has left many Kansans disgruntled as evidenced by the now famous Boss Hawg’s Bar-B-Q incident wherein Brownback’s waitress famously refused gratuity from the Governor, instead advising Brownback to “tip the schools.”
Here’s what the situation looks like visually (note that the tax cuts came in 2012):
In early April, Brownback signed a welfare reform bill into law. The goal, the Governor said, is to “get people back to work, because that’s where the real benefit is getting people off public assistance and back into the marketplace with the dignity and far more income there than the pittance that government gives them. And I hope we don’t lose track of the primary focus of what we’re after.”
Well, it turns out some observers did “lose focus” because the bill contained a number of rather ‘innovative’ riders, one of which limits the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from ATMs with state-issued assistance cards to $25 per day.
The idea, according to Kansas, is to ensure that poor people spend public assistance on necessities, where “necessities” must not mean rent because after all, rent costs more than $25 and because there’s a $1 fee for each withdrawal, plus the standard ATM fee for those with no checking account, each visit can cost as much as $3 (or more) and because ATMs don’t dispense 5s, a person looking to spend say, $300 of public assistance on rent would need to go to the ATM 15 separate times incurring $45 in fees.
A single mother with two children in the state would receive around $400 in assistance, meaning that, in the scenario presented above, the ATM limit amounts to a 10% reduction in monthly benefits.
As we noted last month, it isn’t at all clear how this policy will lead to a reduction in the number of people on welfare: “This will only serve to further impoverish recipients, making it more likely that they will remain dependent on the public purse, thus driving up the cost of the program for taxpayers in the long run.”
Phyllis Gilmore, Secretary of The Kansas Department for Children and Families, doesn’t agree. In fact, Phyllis thinks this is the kind of thing that other states should try, because after all, poverty is a real inconvenience for everyone:
“We encourage other states to look to Kansas on how to help end government dependency… government dependency [is] a disservice to the individual, a disservice to our culture and certainly a disservice to the taxpayer.”
(Brownback and Gilmore signing the welfare reform bill into law)
The bill (which also bans poor people from spending public assistance on going to the movies or going swimming) has since garnered quite a bit of national attention. Here's some additional color on the issue from Bloomberg:
Kansas is in trouble. After slashing income taxes in 2012, the state faces a revenue gap of more than $400 million. Republican Governor Sam Brownback and state legislators are debating how to make up the shortfall. So far they’ve agreed on one way to control how state money is spent. Starting in July, people on the dole will be limited to a single ATM withdrawal of no more than $25 per day.
A September 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 73 percent of Republicans feel the government can’t afford to do much more to help the needy, compared with 32 percent of Democrats. “If you look at cycles in history, you’ll see that there is compassion, then compassion fatigue, and then blame,” says Patricia Baker, a senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a Boston nonprofit that researches poverty. “This happens because there’s impatience with the solution.”
The number of families receiving cash through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal-state aid program that grew out of the 1996 federal welfare reform law, peaked in 1994 at 5.1 million families, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s since plummeted to 1.5 million at the end of 2014. In Kansas 6,478 families were on welfare at the end of last year, down from 7,553 in 2013. Monthly payments for a family of three range from $386 to $429, depending on a county’s population and cost of living.
The restrictions on ATM withdrawals could eat up as much as 10 percent of that in transaction fees, according to Shannon Cotsoradis, president and chief executive officer of the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children. She says state lawmakers acted on anecdotes about TANF cards being used at casinos and, in one instance, on a cruise ship. “This is not a data-driven policy decision,” she says. “This is a solution seeking a problem.”
Bloomberg goes on to note that as states' fiscal crises worsen, officials are turning increasingly to welfare cuts to plug funding gaps:
Kansas is among several Republican-controlled states that have recently cut or limited public-assistance funds. In Arizona, which faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers voted on May 18 to limit welfare to a year, the shortest window in the nation. On May 5, Missouri’s Republican legislature overrode Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s veto to enact a bill that cut thousands of low-income families from aid rolls by reducing how long people can claim cash from five years to fewer than four. Michigan’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill on June 2 that strips cash assistance from families with chronically truant children. “During the recession there were lots of blue states, for fiscally driven reasons, that were cutting welfare,” says Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank. “This year’s cuts feel more ideologically driven.”
Partisan politics aside, the cuts, more than anything else, are a reflection of the nation's state and local government fiscal crisis, which has already claimed Chicago (in the form of a devastating Moody's downgrade) and threatens at least 22 states, including Kansas.
With The Illinois Supreme Court having set a precedent that effectively rules out pension reform as a solution, states may turn to pension obligation bonds. If this becomes the go-to, can-kicking option, you can bet the crisis will eventually return with a vengeance, and with it, more and deeper cuts.
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Gut the manufacturing economy and blame the policy's victims.
Set up like bowling pins.
Maybe these folks should supplement their free money by getting a job.
Crazy huh? When a job is actually a supplement?
Oh but how will the schools ever fill their their bottomless pit budgets without MOAR taxes!?!?!
Better send out the posse to collect. Oh um, it's for the children!
People on welfare can use the cards just like debit cards to buy food clothing and other necessities.
The fee is ONLY on cash withdrawals. It is discourage the use of welfare money for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, hookers, lap dances and other prohibited things.
The fees effectively amount to a bail in of the poorest class.
Talk about being kicked when you are down!
Andddddd crack and Ho-Ho sales crater in Kansas....
Double post
A few months ago I watched as a girl purchased 3 big cans of red bull, not sure what the value is because I refuse to spend that much on a drink... She then asked if she had any "allowance" and pulled 25ish bucks from the card and purchased 3 packs of cigs 2 menthol 1 regular. All at a gas station. I walked up, paid for my .99 cent tea, and gas, and shook my head on my way to work.
mind your own business citizen. pay your taxes to buy her red bull. in general, just stop paying attention.
So, basically a dry run for the rest of the economy?
America needs 50 million more illegal aliens for the elites Army.
0b1knob
You are exactly correct in describing how the cards can be used. This is simply another of the generally misleading article from ZH. It seems that ZH should know better than to base a write up on something found on Bloomberg. Any good Republican idea is immediately trashed by the writers there who are engaged in a libtard circle jerk.
The welfare recipients can get their full benefits with NO Fees deducted, just use the card properly.
I don't see a Visa or Mastercard logo on the cards (which would make paying utility bills in my part-time 'Murican neighborhood a non-starter).
I do, however, see OFFICIAL Kansas government literature that talks about making cash withdrawals to pay for child care.
What State benefits exactly are delivered with the cards?
Edit: The official user manual for the cards specifically talks about CASH BENEFITS and FOOD BENEFITS and how one ALREADY cannot withdraw cash at an ATM against food benefits.
So why does the government want to limit withdrawal of CASH benefits to $25 per transaction, when the government is charging $1 per transaction, on top of what the ATM machine owner is charging?
You don't need tax subsideis if you have organic job creation and wage increases...
That's how the republicans get votes...
Which is a damn sight better than flooding the country with shit people to get the democrat votes...
At least the tax breakers try to spend some if they happen to be 100% completely healthy, otherwise every fucking penny, your first born, are now what is required for SHITTY HEALTHCARE.
That leaves, oh, about a 12 foot hole blown into the side of the family, because here in fucktardland, it's all about destroying the families.
MISSION ACCOMOPLISHED YOU HEAD NIGGER IN CHARGE........
The Repubtards wrecked this country too with their "free trade" bullshit to send good paying jobs to cheap labor off-shore
So both parties are destroying families
Yea, those republitards like NAFTA, GATT signer, Bill Clinton....
Red and Blue team circle jerk creates results for the moneychangers....for you ..not so much.
RIPS
Nail meet hammer. Thanks Rips.
Bingo! The world hasn't changed much in the past 2015+ years. The moneychangerbergs still make money regardless of the welfare of the cattle.
Exactly.
"NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement."
- Bill Clinton
headbanger,
the damage must have been long lasting.
The NAFTA agreement was seen by democraps as one of President Clintoon's finest accomplishments.
The overwhelming praise for it is what has prompted O'Bummbo to negotiate his secret Pacific free trade agreement.
And just to make certain that there is a limit on good paying jobs, Democrat President O'Bumbo has used illegal orders to import more illegal workers.
"That's how the republicans used to get votes..."
There fixed it.
Kansas is the new devil because they oppose criminal invasion with benefits, plus their secretary of state Kris Kobach is the devil incarnate.
Even of they all some how got a job tomorrow say as queue tenders for the FEMA camps, do you think they'll cut your taxes? f*** no they'll spend it on monitoring procedures or a like to make sure those in work are actually working.
When these parasites and I'm talking gov start feeding on theirselves it's game over in sight.
Here's something that's crazy - there are about 3 people looking per each available job.
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=1dQ7
So what do the other 2 do?
ACP
Your instruction to
"these folks"
must also include instruction to employers
to hire every one who applies.
The pricks know we are headed into the gutter. This hellcare cost is a huge peg in bringing the system to the knees of the elite.
Fuck you amerika, this global thingy is going as planned and tuff shit to you.
I have a sister in law on assistance. She struggles to pay her $50/month electric bill but is able to smoke cigs at $10/pack frequently.
Which ironically is 80% tax.
Well played, base. Well played.
d
While this is a silly game played by the state, I do have to say that if you're on assistance you have plenty of time to walk to the ATM every day and get your $25. It's not like you're doing anything productive, or more likely you are hiding your income and taking the extra money.
So how far is that ATM from you? Do you have a car? Do you use a cane to walk, or are you in perfect health?
That ATM accross from your gate community what are the rents like there more or less then 20 dollars a day?
Quick you are to throw stones. I hope you are judged much kinder then you are so willing to judge others.
***Sniff**, this had me in tears, very well put, not anything like the typical nostrums thrown out about the disadvantaged ***Sniff***
-- Thomas Jefferson
-- Benjamin Franklin
-- James Madison
Of course, to the self-righteous, NONE of those receiving assistance are elderly or disabled.
Instead, consider the banksters ATM fee scam in California.
"Although residents have the right to request that funds be given to them through direct deposit into a bank account, very few do: more than 96 percent of Californians use cards. [Maybe because they don't qualify for free checking accounts?]
They are allowed four withdrawals per month, after which they have to pay 80 cents for each withdrawal.
On top of that, many banks and ATM owners charge a fee, usually about $2 to $3 per transaction. Check cashing stores also charge a fee of about 1 to 2 percent of the withdrawal. Nearly a third of ATM transactions were at five banks that all charge for EBT use, and they got more than $9 million in welfare funds through those fees last year."
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/26/3419213/california-welfare-f...
I have a sister-in-law on assistance. Now she makes over $5,000 a month, sitting at home while still on assistance. If you'd like to find out how you too can be on assistance and make $5,000 a month or more, please visit www.iloveassistance.com It will change your life!
Tell your fuckinsister to rol her own.
Or to roll over on her back. Like the song from Hell on High Heels says, "it's a sunny day now baby, every night on her back that's spent"
Housing, clothes, food, furniture and now they're crying because they want to limit the Schlitz Malt liquor allowance?
Tell your fuckin sister to roll her own.
Kansas should lay out the Welcome Mat for Connecticut residents....
Is there a bill in place limiting how corporations can spend their welfare checks? No?..... I didn't think so.
All of this side-show horseshit and the ACTUAL lead of the article is buried all the way in the skinny paragraph at the bottom.
It's not the welfare restrictions, it's not the tax cuts. It's the FUCKING PENSIONS. It's ALWAYS THE FUCKING PENSIONS.
Exactly NoDebt. Which is why one of only four Canadians attending Bilderberg is Heather Munroe-Blum, "Chairperson" of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. Hmmmm....
sell the crack over the counter at a store that can take EBT? What problem?
Being on public assistance is SUPPOSED TO SUCK. I thought the idea was to help people who are having difficulty supporting themselves, but to make it shitty enough that anyone who can improve their situation does so. The people who have no chance at improving their lot have SSDI and a host of other sources of help.
Thats cruel. Don't you know that the safety net is supposed to be a hammock?
If being on public assistance is SUPPOSED TO SUCK, how come so many people want a government paycheck/pension/benefits?
Because it's EASY MONEY...
...but it's not goverment assistance?...or is it just OK because its a larger amount?...or is that your normalcy bias?...or all of them?
Notice the part where you said "SUPPOSED TO" and then ignored that so you could talk about the American welfare system.
I guess the message is 'go to Nevada'. Our Governor Sandoval (R...hoping to be VP candidate unless Rubio fills the need fo Hispanicness) just got the biggest tax hike in the State's history after promising he wouldn't. As an R myself I am now completely used to being lied to by RINOS.
If some states are stingy and others are generous with benefits to the poor I guess some states will get all the poor. When the Feds can no longer pay for it all the states will be stuck with a bunch of needy.
Sandoval is all neocon Bush/mass immigration/debt and every Republican in the state knew it before the election
RINOS = ain't they all.
Feed the Poor; to the lions. s/c
this is all about Kansas resisting the Mexican Socialist invasion anyway they can.
I mentioned this before, but this is the capital control plan for America - make it insanely expensive for anyone to operate with cash.
It's just like payday loans. Need money and you are desperate - pay 200% interest.
Here you have a program that taxes the poor orders of magnitude higher than anyone else - simply because they are not using electronic "money."
This plan is not hatched by some Topeka horse-bankers.
It comes from the IMF/FED/BIS and its headed for your state next year too.
Forget your personal politics, at some point you will realize these "people" really hate you and your family and are furiously doing everything to cut you down before you wake up and take them out.
It's worth everyone researching their family's census records. Before the 1920's most folks were sharecroppers.
We are reverting back to that period, except you won't have any crops to harvest.
Maybe just sleep in your car until Uber rings.
92+ million un or underemployed Amerikans.
What will happen next?
You can't eat an Uber.
200% that's peanuts compared to the 1255% i seen from one of these cutthroat enterprises. The floggings will continue until morale improves.
The fees on the cards is BS. They should be limited to basic neccesities though. You're not going to pull at my heartstrings becuase these people "are being denied the right" to go to the movies and get $20 concessions. The lazy people pulling this cart better get busy pulling harder.
The KS shortfall is 5% of total budget. Why is it a big deal to cover most of the gap with cuts? I'd say 10% of state employees (incl. schools) should lose their jobs, if they can't find a way to cut 5%.
They should at least allow them GAO per diem rates for daily cash withdrawals. That's subsidy inequality.
Poor should be Poor....not shopping at an ATM.....they should not be able to use cash...and only at grocery stores for a very limitied amount of items....it should be tough to be on welfare.....but if you cross the border you are handed leaflets printed in your language on how to get it....we are stupid....
You are correct, we are stupid. We throw gobs of tax revenue at the poor like its going out of style. Problem is, we're also throwing gobs of tax revenue at coporations with bad business models. America, where the bottom 10% and top 10% spend our tax dollars (well minus all that free money we give Israel).
In Rhode Island some sandwich shops with political pull had the laws changed so that the poor can use their cards to get sandwiches because apparently the unemployed don't have the time to go to the grocery store, buy stuff to make a sandwich, and then actually make a sandwich unlike working people that do work full time and still somehow have the time to buy and make sandwiches for lunch.
Sad but true. Locally there was quite an uproar when the amount of EBT transactions were traced to local casinos. I was shocked 3 years ago when I went on medical disability after surgery and was handed a credit card that was loaded up every week. Seemed quite lax to me. Someone unscrupulous may consider a Las Vegas vacation. Too bad I had a few hundred stitches.
Miffed;-)
I wonder how much they pay the banks each year to maintain the transactios?
I'll bet you it's too much.
Take the Madhatter's appropriations for chemtrails alone (geo-engineering) and you could put a Harvard and a Co-operative Bank on every streetcorner. Why you'd want Alan Dershowitz in the neighborhood is your problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZDwxnjG1g
I like the other Tylers better than this one.
Schools never have enought money. We spend more on education and get what in return? Yes, the governor should cut other items like the corporate welfare. However, we need a way to break the public sector unions to be able to reform these bloated pensions that we see in the public sector. Article should talk about how the public sector unions and corporation rape the Kansas taxpayer.
Well, this should be able to buy grandma some milk, eggs, bread & ground beef if she's lucky.
Blah Blah Blah sooner or later we have to live within our means. The (lol) big tax cut went to sub-chapter S corps. I have one as a family business. My big refund was $2600 in 2013 and $1600 in 2014.... In 2013 I paid $28K in taxes some due to pulling money out of my IRA. BTW I still havn't even recieved the $2600 due to me screwing up the box I entered on....but re-filing some time ago.
Kansas has lots of challenges a big one the last 3 years is a huge drop in revenues due to terrible farm incomes. Plus a lot of businesses going under. Kansas has a pretty generous support system for the handicapped, especially mentally handicapped. How do we afford it? We can't and taxes have already been increased especially on the elderly with health issues. I do my mother in-laws taxes and this year she paid more in KS. State tax than she did in Federal. Why? because they limited her deduction for assisted living expenses. The woman is a brittle diabetic and deaf among other issues. She can't live alone even with being in assisted living we had to take her to the hospital 5x in 2014 due to off the chart insulin levels causing her to pass out and injure herself or need treatment to lower her insulin levels. She lives in an assisted living center that is average in cost. Her expense is above that level due to her Care Level being high.
Nobody is happy about having less goodies...NO SHIT! However our State Laws are to balance the budget.... Translation everyone has to suck it up and that means the poor too. Want some more illegitimate kids running around uh no....well then quit rewarding it with more $$$. Want bowling teams at all the H.S.? Want separate H.S. sports leagues for the Handicapped? Of course until someone has to pay for it. I look at the schools today an see the Empire builders and the Government Regs have created a totally effed up system. Tons more money is spent per student and the test results haven't budged in 40 years.....We buy all the kids in our district I-pads......and that has got us what? We all want MOAR MOAR MOAR......but no one wants to foot the bill.....
There is no bill because there is no money. Its credit created out of nothing that forces some to work for it and others to not. Its all theft some benifit more or less from theft but its all theft.
Only with proper accounting can a bill be made, only with lawful means can be paid.
So there is no debt to pay for that debt exists unlawfully.
We Brownback'd some folks....
The media that write these articles don’t know squat about Kansas fiscal and budgetary issues.
Sam Brownback is trying to change how we raise tax revenue in the state. You can call it misguided or ambitious, but he has been trying to decrease the Kansas state income tax, which was as high as 6.45%. His ultimate goal is to be rid of the income tax and most business taxes and replace them with a consumption-based tax, which is preferable when trying to attract people and business to the state.
People argue against cutting of a 2.8% business tax on pass-through entities, but it is really no different than a sales tax as ultimately it is the consumer that pays the tax.
Trash Brownback all you want, but what is driving our budgetary shortfall is 3 things.
1. Out of control school spending that has gone up every year even under Brownback and the KS legislature refuses to cut it. They only recently slightly reduced an increase when the state finance director was off on his projections.
2. Out of control spending on roads. Kansas has the 5th best roads in the country because the road construction lobby is so powerful in this state.
3. Lastly, the huge increases in Medicaid spending from the “woodwork affect” created by all of Obamacare’s advertising telling people they can qualify for Medicaid. So, now you have all these people coming out of the woodwork to get on Medicaid that has drastically increased.
Without Brownback’s increases in K-12 funding and the spike in Medicaid recipients, Kansas budget would be balanced. He is also trying to be fill the KPERS funding gap left by Sebelius and Parkinson who robbed the teacher’s pension funds to increase K-12 per pupil funding. For crying out loud just look how much these two leftists raised school spending before Brownback. They increase school spending 30% in 5 years and now everyone screams like stuck pigs if you even try to trim it. http://www.kansasopengov.org/SchoolDistricts/SpendingPerPupil/tabid/1271/Default.aspx
We have a bunch of RINOs in Kansas (can’t hardly get elected without an R by your name) and bunch wimps who refuse to cut the budget even 1-2%.
There is no more money to help give Temporary Assistance for Needy Families., However, there is enough money to send tens of billions to so-called moderate rebel maggots to overthrow Assad, enough money to foment regime change ie; overthrow governments in Ukraine and now Macedonia and to arm neo nazi Ukrainians murdering their own people.
Sadly there is plenty of money to spend on neocon causes, but not enough money to take care of American citizens in need!
"because there’s a $1 fee for each withdrawal, plus the standard ATM fee for those with no checking account, each visit can cost as much as $3 (or more) and because ATMs don’t dispense 5s..."
But look at who gains,,, always the Banksters,,, always.
This all go back to putting the burden or tax on those who can afford to pay...
If you want to put a "transaction tax" on something, put it on the HFT traders on every purported quote. That alone would take care of "spoofing."
I see from the sentiment on the board that Americans don't want to support the poor, but rather want to cast aspersions at them as being bottom-feeders.
That thinking is why we are going to be going the way of the dodo, and our society is doomed: because we have a fake ethics of 'personal responsibility' a.k.a. atomized individualism, instead of an ethics of responsibility to all, to the group, to the tribe.
Good riddance to us and our miserable country, if it can't even be bothered to help its own poor. Get ready to fend for yourselves, individualists!
Unintended (or maybe not) consequences.
Flat tax everyone, no corporate welfare, no bank bailouts, and means test all that get any money from the government - including social security.
Ya I know - too easy - will never see the light of day because to many corrupt politicians.
Tax loopholes should be in the form of a hang mans noose.
What could possibly go wrong here??
Gov. Brownback is stingy and shortsighted. A small investment can sometimes reap big rewards. For instance, why not institute a program to provide people on assistance with free one-way bus tickets to California? Maybe even purchase motels in CA where they could stay until they qualify for assistance there?
The poor would get more generous payments in a state with a better climate. Gov. Brown wants to bring more poor people to the state. And Kansas would save money in the long run. Everyone wins.
Don't kid yourself, anti-welfare folks. This isn't about rugged individualism or any other nonsense. This is about funneling state money to the moneychangers. Forcing the poor to use the ATM repeatedly doesn't save the state any money; the money goes to ATM handling fees instead of the poor. Moreover, by restricting withdrawals, the poor need to use plastic to pay; each plastic payment throws a few percent to the money handlers. You dupes lust for the suffering of the poor and rejoice to think you're kicking them in the teeth, but you're being swindled.
.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS
The issue in Kansas is merely a Microcosm of the larger and ultimate issue:
We have reached PEAK TAXATION.
This means that any further TAXATION no matter how it may be couched or effected, is NET NEGATIVE to GDP.
The Data reflects this as Clear as Day.
What we see in the US and many other countries is that MORE, not LESS PROMISES are being made, and GOVERNMENT is viewed and VIEWS ITSELF as either the SOLUTION or PROPER INTERMEDIARY to the SOLUTION.
Most POLITICIANS here in the US and other places FAIL TO APPREHEND "PEAK TAXATION" much less the PROXIMATE CONSEQUENCE:
PEAK GOVERNMENT.
Eliminate 'WELFARE" altogether, and how much is saved ?
Take a major PRISON SYSTEM and FREEZE ALL PRISONERS IN STASIS and how much would you save ?
You see, the SOLUTION is only one thing:
A FUNDAMENTAL DIRECTION CHANGE.
The NATURE OF GOVERNMENT is to expand infinitely.
Yet "THE PEOPLE" are EQUALLY the PROBLEM:
Where is the place that a POLITICIAN can get ELECTED with a PLEDGE to CUT GOVERMMENT by 20-30% ACROSS THE BOARD ?
You See, there can be no SMOOTH RESOLUTION.
There is only ONE SOLUTION:
INTEREST RATES.
In the Timing, lay TRILLION, NOT BILLIONS, of LOSSES.
As has been observed in Times Past, and Apopos to Our Times:
STARVE THE BEAST.
As I have said, it will be CONSEQUENCES, not ACTION or RHETORIC that will EFFECT CHANGE.
That Time is Fast Approaching.
All One can do is POSITION in CAPITAL and LIFE for such.
Off your meds?
"Who could imagine that they would freak out somewhere in KANSAS!"
Frank Zappa - from Freak Out, 1966
Easiest way to feed the Poor is to Starve the Criminals that keep them Poor.
Being from KS, I can think of a few other things that are a disservice to tax payers you fat fucking cunt!
Gilmore will love her Social Security and Medicare!
Simple: you get what you vote for.
Texas doesn't need a poor tax, it needs a "Mexican Tax"
"cut or limited public-assistance funds"
Sounds like political suicide.
Then again, the TEA PARTY won't really defund any wars so there are bigger problems in the world.
Maybe China will see the opportunity of cheap labour in the midwest and in Chicago and Detroit.Expand the sweat shops to America to take advantage of a gutted economy.
This is theatre. Kansas knows what it needs to do to balance its budget---abolish its government pension plan, replace it with nothing and send long-suffering Kansan taxpayers a check for the amount of their share of the pot. Precious few Kansans lucky enough to still have honest private-sector jobs will get pensions. Why should government parasites?
If losing their pensions forces those parasites who became schoolteachers because they were too ugly or crazy to get married to get rid of their cats that screech all night and use neighbouring lawns as a litterbox, it'll be worth it just for that.
Oh please. The Tylers revel in posting the charts showing that if one knows how to work the public benefits system, in some states savvy leeches can pull in more money than some business owners net in weak years.
Yet, we are supposed to take up the banner of the socialists in Kansas?
It is well known that there is a) an epidemic of people who flagrently break the rules on use of benefits and b) there is an entire class of people who game the system and work 'under the table' in various degrees.
So which is it? Rein in the out of control feeding frenzy by the bottom 48%? Or give everyone a (faux) Euro-style socialist package of minimal benefits?
Sure, I agree that the fee probably isn’t fair to everyone and there are exceptions. I also am 100% sure that this is a policy in response to years of a growing problem that has not slowed down.