A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Are you on food stamps? Do you live in Missouri? Then put down that slab of sirloin and don’t touch that salmon. You’re poor, and you’ve got to live like it. Buy the cheapest grade of hamburger. That’s the premise of a bill introduced in the Missouri legislature by Republican legislator Rick Brattin, who claims “I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards.” He evidently missed seeing EBT cards used to buy ramen noodles at two bits a package at Walmart.
Across the state line to the west, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, another Republican, appears ready to sign a bill designed to limit welfare recipients from spending more than $25 a day in TANF benefits. No other state has a similar law, so the Jayhawkers are pioneering a new way of punishing the poor. What’s the matter with Kansas? Teabagger Republicans.
Remember Guy Drake’s Welfare Cadillac? You probably don’t if you were born after 1960. I don’t know whether Drake’s still alive, but the stomp down the poor spirit of his song sure is, especially in Missouri, Kansas, and yes, in our own beloved Montana.
Want to know the truth about being poor? Then listen to the Acoustic Blues performing Jimmy Cox’s 1923 classic, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,.