Trump looks to Kansas for ideas and inspiration for his pogrom against poor and work requirement for healthcare

By SJ Otto

If there is one clear theme of the Donald Trump Administration I would call it "the scum rising to the top." Everything that is wrong with the direction of this country and government is being sought out after by Trump and his party. Our own Governor Sam Brownback is playing a leading roll as a source of inspiration to this countries pogrom against poor people. Welfare today is almost non-existent in Kansas. The restrictions are so great that few of its many poor people can take advantage of them.

Here are some statistics from this Sunday's The Wichita Eagle, in an article called "Brownback cut welfare in Kansas; is Congress about to follow?":

Welfare restrictions and work requirements have knocked tens of thousands of Kansans off assistance over the past few years. Many get kicked out for not working, but only a small percentage leave because they have a job, the latest federal data reveals.

Republicans in Congress have said they want to tackle welfare reform. Some, including Rep. Ron Estes of Wichita, say Washington, D.C. should look to Kansas as an example, but it’s unclear whether program cuts in Kansas left recipients better off.

During his time as governor, Gov. Sam Brownback lowered lifetime caps on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families from 60 months to 24 months and implemented work requirements for recipients. The Republican-controlled Legislature also acted to place many of the changes made by Brownback into law.

Federal data released in October shows that last year only 9.2 percent of Kansas recipients are getting off assistance because they’re employed. Nationwide the rate is 19.7 percent.

At the same time, 21.8 percent of Kansas recipients lost benefits for not complying with work requirements. The U.S. average is 5.7 percent.

“Communities are suffering and families are suffering because we have put barriers up,” Rep. Monica Murnan, D-Pittsburg, said.....

...... DCF spokeswoman Taylor Forrest said the agency “allows its clients to voluntarily close their assistance cases at any time, and they are not required by law to report why they are closing” their case.

She acknowledged that only 9 to 10 percent of recipients list new employment as a reason. Others offer no explanation, she said.

Kansas may be about the hardest state on poor people when it comes to welfare. It should be relabelled "don't care." Our idiot governor, who seems to have been born without a heart, has almost completely destroyed any vestige of a safety net for our neediest citizens. For most people in Kansas there is no welfare system. Brownback seems to take delight in kicking people off of assistance. And for years he and his followers have bragged that they have lifted people out of poverty and have gave them employment. This has all been an elaborate lie.

Even worse than welfare, Brownback is interested in Trump's moves to require work for Medicaid. Brownback has already stood against expanding Medicaid in Kansas. As many as 77,000 Kansans are without healthcare and cannot get KanCare, the bastardised privately run version of Medicaid, dumped on us by Brownback.

The decision by 25 states to reject the expansion of Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act will result in between 7,115 and 17,104 more deaths than had all states opted in, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York. And that includes Kansas.

For most of my adult life and the lives of many other fine Americans, I have fought for universal health care. This is the only industrialized country without it. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care, was a step in the right direction all thought it did not go far enough. Now we have politicians such as Trump and Brownback trying to go the other way, trying to put more obstacles to the few people who have access to Medicaid. This is more red tape. The people who really get hurt by this are those who are already sick, need health care, and can't work because they are sick. With so many people getting sick and dying it is hard to buy the ridiculous arguments that work requirements make life better for those denied health care. Those who push for these work requirements are despicable human beings who seem to have a great contempt for the poor. This is hate legislation and their is no better word for it. Trump and Brownback are nothing more than classist criminals who treat the poor the way the Nazis treated the Jews.

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