You would think that Rep. Michele Bachmann would put unemployment benefits and getting taxpayers some immediate relief ahead of stopping a few welfare recipients using their money for lap dances in strip clubs. You would be wrong.
If anyone was still trying to wrap their heads around why Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) finished sixth in the Iowa Caucuses and dropped out of the GOP presidential race, then perhaps a look at the way she prioritizes might be in order. In a recent interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin, she told him that the best thing to come out of the passage of the payroll tax cut bill was that welfare recipients would no longer be allowed to use American tax dollars for lap dances in strip clubs.
That is correct. Making certain that 160 million American workers still struggling in an torpid economy get a little break on each paycheck (the reauthorization of the payroll tax cuts) was not as important. Making certain that 5.5 million (in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) individuals on extended unemployment benefits continued to receive the aid many of them need to make ends meet was not as important. That thousands of doctors not lose 27 percent of their payments for treating Medicare patients, something that could have triggered a cascade of institutions and private practitioners withdrawing from the program, was not more important.
No, what was most important to Rep. Bachmann was that welfare recipients not be allowed to spend their money on lap dances.
"They're extending unemployment, too," she said, "but the big thing that we get is no longer can a welfare recipient walk into a strip club and get money out of an ATM machine to pay for a lap dance."
Although it is important that abuses within the welfare system be eliminated and questionable purchases made with taxpayer dollars by blocked or completely stopped, it is difficult to understand how stopping welfare dollars being used to purchase lap dances becomes "the big thing" that comes out of a bill that affects over 200 million people. As of June 2011, the number of recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), according to the Department of Health and Human Services, was 4.6 million (a number that has been steadily declining since December).
Bachmann's outrage over lap dances in this regard is justified -- to an extent. However, the use of shocking stories that are exceptions to the rule of how welfare recipients that live below the poverty line spend their assistance money is just another way to make villains of the poor. And unemployment benefits extension reauthorization that keep the jobless from having to apply for TANF aid seems to be a bit more important than worrying about a few abuses to the system.
But, then, Bachmann is not known for her ability to prioritize or for being socially tolerant. She's best known for making outlandish comments and controversial statements like this particular insight into what is most important to the congresswoman.
Again, does anyone need a refresher on why Bachmann is no longer a Republican candidate for president?
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