Most Kansans consider record low unemployment to be fantastic news.
For Senate President Ty Masterson, it’s just another opportunity to punish the poor and attack the governor.
Here’s what he wrote in a response to Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Substitute for House Bill 2448, a bill designed to make it harder for poor Kansans to get federal food assistance:
“It is hard to comprehend that during a time in which Kansas is experiencing record unemployment, the governor would veto a bill aimed at getting able-bodied adults back into the workforce . . .”
Say what?
An aide to the senator clarified: “Of course, usually when we talk about record unemployment, it’s in the context of it being ‘high’ – so I understand the confusion of the wording there, absent the qualifier ‘low,’” said Michael Pirner.
Unemployment in Kansas is 2.5%. That’s the lowest rate going all the way back to 1976, the oldest data the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes online.
It’s cause for celebration, not starvation.
I’ll spare you the rest of Masterson’s missive, more of the usual “war on work” and “Biden/Pelosi playbook” nonsense we’ve all heard before.
But while we’re here, let’s talk about the bill.
It’s another piece of cut-and-paste legislation walked into the Statehouse by the Opportunity Solutions Project, a shadowy Florida-based “think tank” that pretty much exists to make poor people’s lives more miserable and make it harder for the average citizen to vote.
They’re the same folks behind efforts to get rid of the three-day grace period for the Post Office to deliver ballots that are mailed on or just before Election Day. They’re also the force behind the effort to get rid of drop boxes that voters can use to turn in mail ballots when it’s most convenient for them. Opportunity Solutions Project doesn’t disclose its donors, so the public has no idea who’s really driving this train.
The group doesn’t disclose its donors, so the public has no idea who’s really driving this train.
Their captive Kansas legislators won’t reveal who’s behind the Opportunity Solutions curtain and worse, they won’t even allow such questions to be asked.
