Is anyone really surprised by this? Republicans are known as The Stupid Party, people like Reichert exemplify the reason why.

What?
People making bad life choices, and sponging off of the honest, won't use a free money card responsibly?
I'm shocked.

That bump on the head is still factor, apparently.

How about mo smokes, no beer, no cable tv, no new Jordans, AND no weed. Makes sense to me.

This is tiring...fuck it all.

End all government welfare...ALL of it.
1: No Welfare, no Social Security, no Medicade, no ACA. If you can't afford medical care or food: Die in the street.
2: No guaranteed health care. If you roll up to the emergency room and you don't have the cash...get out. Make a back door so the paying customers don't have to see you bleeding and vomiting. See# 1
3: Cut government supported services. Privatize water, power, street maintenance, sewers...and if you can't pay, you don't get.

If you're a fucking mooch and sucking the government tit for roads and emergency services...fuck you. You get nothing. Stop spending my tax money to get your arm reattached after that industrial accident, if you can't afford it...see# 1

Why stop at .004% of welfare recipients abusing their services. Fuck EVERYONE who get's one of these forms of Welfare.

THIS WORKS IN THE REAL WORLD!! We CAN do this...it works great in Somalia! Get the government out of our lives!

Wait...you just want to cut Welfare benefits to "THEM"...not "YOU"? Sorry, not the way it should work. Cut one...Cut ALL. CORPORATE welfare is costing you more tax dollars than any other form of Government welfare. You pay 28% taxes...but Boeing pays 0%. You pay into Social Security...but only until you make $117k, then it stops. THAT is the kind of "welfare" abuse you need to focus on.

Politicians focus on false problems to fool the public and get votes...not to fix anything. Based on half the comments here...ITS WORKING.

It's not that difficult... no smokes, weed, beer, or cable TV. People who bust their asses all day are never going to be able to stop the government from wasting billions upon billions on tunnels that will never be built, or new wars in the middle east, but maybe we can at least demand that those who seek help are using that money efficiently, and as limited as possible.

The congressman needs to look at the cost of legal weed and compare that to the total amount a family receives on welfare. Pot is expensive those few dollars would not buy much of the green stuff. People buying and smoking weed in WA state have good jobs to support their fun recreational activities.

It's intellectually lazy to trace classic right-wing cruelty back to Ronald Reagan. He was a simpleton, a demagogue. Conservative ideology has a long, honorable pedigree. It is consistent, coherent and predictable. Predictably 180 degrees wrong, but the ideology itself needs to be confronted and not assumed to be a virulent pathology introduced by some Darth Vader-like evil progenitor.

Why not cut to the chase and ban fun for poor people. That is what this discussion is really about. The strange problem that some have with the idea that someone under the poverty level might have a shred of relief from misery. Weird.

In states that have passed laws mandating drug tests for welfare recipients, all the data indicates that (surprise) welfare recipients use illegal drugs at a lower rate than the general population.

Something about a $600 monthly check has a way of making people buy food before they buy pot and cocaine. Go figure.

I've seen it with my own two eyes. Homeless teen mothers getting out of their chauffeured Rolls Royce with their fur coats and double decker strollers buying the reefer.

@12 - With food stamps, no doubt.

Taking a bold stand against non-existent issues is a great way to look good to people who don't care to think.

Dear idiots: EBT cards can be used to get cash anywhere. When you ban their use in weed stores you don't actually stop cash benefits from being used for weed.

The real waste of money is what we pay this guy to waste his time attacking poor people.

Yet another reminder that Representatives and Senators are free to lie in their floor remarks and in committee. Witnesses in committee hearings are often under oath, but the jackhole running the committee can tell lies with every breath.

@4, how about drones, racism, inequality, money in politics? Makes sense to me.

"First off, a grand total of four welfare recipients have withdrawn cash at ATMs at Washington's legal weed stores since they opened their doors in June, according to Washington State Department of Social and Health Services spokesperson Mindy Chambers. "

The buried lede: the WA DSHS is monitoring which ATMs their clients use.

@2,4,6,8 try reading the article you're commenting on. you're now in my dumbass file.

@19- I don't think it's possible (or a good idea) to run a automated teller machine without tracking where transactions are made.

@21: sure, the banks have to know where the ATMs are. But apparently random people at the DSHS can query that database?

@8- you are too stupid to know which leg your shit is running down.

The people who want to ban welfare the hardest are usually its biggest recipients -- like residents of most Eastern Washington counties. Payments to poor people for groceries are a trivial part of government spending. Oh, yeah -- and welfare is in the friggin' constitution.

This is straight-up Reaganism, and it isn't any more true now than it was then.

REICHert, indeed. --- http://www.politicalcompass.org & http://www.corporatewelfare.org & http://theyrule.net & http://www.jimmarrs.com .