Republicans outlaw cash for poor people

Who needs the Onion when you’ve got Republicans in charge of a bunch of state legislatures?  This is just mind-boggling (via Wonkette):

Minnesota’s Republican lawmakers are, as expected, very angry about poor people. Why give those poor people money when we know they’ll just spend it on the hip-hop and fancy sneakers and for crack smokin’. So, the Republicans had an idea: Until any kind of welfare or assistance to the needy is completely outlawed, which will be soon enough, Minnesota should make it illegal for people getting “emergency cash assistance” to have any of the cash assistance in cash.

So, the poorest families and the poorest disabled adults would be unable to take any of this money as cash, even though poor people by design are kept from having bank accounts or a checkbook, which is why they usually pay bills and rent in cash:

St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.

Unreal.  Actually making it against the law to have cash.  How do these people live with themselves?  Actually, I think I know– secure in the self-righteous comfort that they have deserved every good thing that has befallen them in life and that poor people just as equally deserve all their misfortunes.  Must be nice when the world is so simple (and actually helps explain why conservatives are happier).