Welfare recipients are reportedly prohibited from spending their taxpayer-funded welfare benefits to buy liquor, hit the strip clubs, or pull the limb of the one-armed bandit at gambling halls. But there is one little item that loophole-loving bureaucrats allowed to slip through their grimy, overreaching, fingers: At local pot shops like those in Colorado where it’s legalized, welfare recipients, with the consent of HHS, can use their EBT cards—no need to hit the ATM for cash—to buy marijuana. That’s right. Those receiving welfare are getting high, on our dime, with a green light from HHS. From The Washington Times:

“‘The federal government current spends roughly $750 billion each year on means-tested welfare programs across 80 different accounts. This money is administered by a vast, sprawling bureaucracy with little oversight and no moral vision,’ said Mr. [Jeff] Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

‘Surely we can all agree that the guiding principle ought to be that benefits are reserved for those in real need,’ he said.

Mr. Sessions noted that Congress in 2011 had passed laws that allowed HHS to prohibit Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits from being spent at vice institutions, such as liquor stores, strip clubs and casinos. But the department did not interpret that authority to include marijuana shops.”

You can read Senator Sessions’ letter to HHS here.

Their response:

Funny, that very same department, alongside the guy occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, has no problem unilaterally altering and making law whenever it suits their agenda. See ObamaCare. But when it doesn’t, they suddenly realize they lack the authority.

Why, it’s almost as if they want welfare recipients to be able to buy mind-altering drugs on our dime. For some curious reason…

Since when is weed a taxpayer-funded benefit? Since when did we become so complacent that we tolerate this blatant abuse of our tax dollars, rather than shame it out of existence? Wouldn’t it be nice if our overpaid politicians, irresponsible bureaucrats, and those who unabashedly abuse the benefits taxpayers provide, actually respected those of us who provide it, and utilized our tax dollars responsibly? Wouldn’t it be nice if they’d actually admit they are the ones who’ve created this monster and do what’s necessary to rein it in? Is that asking too much? Apparently it is, at least for this guy: