What Assistance Is Needed?

Kansas just passed a law that bars its welfare recipients from using their assistance from the state for certain kinds of expenditures.  In response, the left is howling in outrage and claiming that the new law is an assault on the dignity of the poor and a mean spirited attack on the needy.  This level of upset led me to look a bit more closely at just what sort of things the Kansas bill is putting off limits for welfare cash.  Here are a few of the most important ones:  tattoos, body piercing, visiting a psychic, concert tickets, cruise ship vacations, buying certain types of lingerie, as well as liquor, cigarettes and gambling.  The last three items are mandated by federal law, so they shouldn't matter to the left, although since president Obama rarely enforces federal laws of this sort, the state prohibition is more important than it would be with in normal times.

So which of these activities does the left want to protect?  The answer is all of them.  It is a ridiculous position.  If a person on assistance in Kansas wants to visit a psychic, that's fine.  That person, however, will have to get a job an earn the cash to fund that visit.  If that same person wants to have tats and piercings all over his or her body, again, that's fine, but the cash will not come from the state.

The simple point is that welfare is meant to assist the neediest among us when they face a temporary difficulty.  It is meant to help with paying for life's necessities.  It is not meant to fund lifestyle choices or visits to concerts.  Anyone who does not understand this is not playing with a full deck.