Somehow Jeff Dial (the guy whose website lifts text from Wikipedia to explain the Arizona Legislature) didn’t get in on the action this time, but the Arizona Legislature is trying to shame food stamp recipients with a bright orange card again. This is, of course, because trying to feed your family when you’re poor is something that should be personally embarassing:
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 36, chapter 29, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 36-2905.05, to read:
36-2905.05. Identification cards; requirements
The administration shall issue to each member who is eligible for services pursuant to this chapter an identification card that includes a current photograph of the member and the member’s plan identification number. The color of the identification card shall be safety orange. The card shall include in large black print the phrase “government Assistance card”. The member must present the card before receiving nonemergency services pursuant to this chapter.
What I wrote in February when this stupid, unnecessary punitive idea come up then is still applicable, but I’m wondering if Reps. Seel, Harper, Judd, Kavanagh, Proud and Sen. Antenori picked orange because they wanted to catch up on the color trend of 2012, but were afraid to see overly fashionable by selecting Tangerine Tango. Sen. Antenori, in particular, seems like a pretty style-conscious dude.
Wait, no, I’m pretty sure they just hate poor people.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2012.
Sen. Antenori, in particular, seems like a pretty style-conscious dude. (Posted by Dan Gibson on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM)
Sen. Antenori continues to be employed by the Old Pueblo’s Raytheon, right?
It’s nice to see there’s money in the budget for this, that DES employees (those not lost to budget cuts that are already causing service delays) have spare time that needs to be filled with a program like this, and the the lege hasn’t anything actually important to do these days now that all of the pressing problems faced by Arizona have been solved.
I think they’re missing something here, though — they should be mandating orange triangles on the clothing of assistance recipients, and possibly subcutaneous ID chips such as they give to animals.
Maybe they could go a step further? Special camps for assistance recipients — Arpaio could advise on how to run those — with euthanasia chambers for those who’ve been on assistance for, oh, three years or so.
Yeah, I know, don’t give them ideas. Someone’s going to light up at this and start drafting a proposal for CCA.