URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
(DC Pundit) – Beer, liquor, cigarettes and porn. No, that’s not the shopping list for a bachelor party in Vegas. It’s what some Americans have been buying with cash welfare, courtesy of a loophole in federal law that you could drive a Budweiser truck through.
Fortunately, states are finally waking up, and the Trump administration is helping. The latest to act is Nebraska. On Oct. 9, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen ordered the state to stop letting cash welfare recipients spend that money on tobacco, porn, tattoos, psychic and fortune-telling services, luxury watches and more. Anyone getting money through Nebraska’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program can no longer use it on things taxpayers shouldn’t be bankrolling in the first place.
Most Americans would be forgiven for assuming this was already the rule. Cash welfare was created to help low-income families “achieve economic security and stability.” Last I checked, a cigarette habit and a fresh tattoo aren’t on the path to economic security. So how did we get here?
Federal rules do bar recipients from spending TANF dollars at liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs. But alcohol is sold at plenty of other places, like your neighborhood grocery store, and gambling and pornography are available well beyond the casino floor. Washington built the fence around the front yard and left the back gate wide open.
That gate has been swinging for roughly 30 years. TANF was born in the 1996 welfare reform law signed by President Bill Clinton, and apparently nobody in Congress noticed that “adult entertainment” is not confined to seedy clubs. The list of questionable purchases doesn’t stop there. Concert tickets, streaming subscriptions and spa treatments have been fair game too. Nothing says “needy” like a facial.
Closing the loophole for the whole country would take an act of Congress, and anyone who has watched Capitol Hill lately knows how that usually goes. So the Trump administration took a smarter route. It issued guidance explaining how states can ask for stronger restrictions on a state-by-state basis, which explains the sudden progress.
Florida moved first. In August, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis blocked cash welfare from being spent on tobacco, drugs, porn, tattoos, video games, fortune-telling services and a long list of other non-essentials. The Trump administration quickly approved the plan, which DeSantis said will protect “Floridians who genuinely need assistance” while guarding taxpayers against fraud and abuse.
So what are the other governors waiting for? Florida and Nebraska have handed them the blueprint. They can amend their state plans, or work with legislators on more permanent reforms and hold retailers accountable for dodging the rules.
Every state should close this loophole immediately. Welfare is meant to be a safety net and taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for someone’s pre-mixed cocktails and porn.
URGENT: CLICK TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LEFT!
Copyright 2026. DCPundit.com | Featured image credit: Flickr/Like_the_Grand_Canyon