There are few lies Republicans will not tell to demonize the poor, as justification for cutting off the needy to give bigger tax cuts and subsidies to the greedy. Many of those lies are quite absurd, like this one. Those lazy, good for nothing [minority implied] wastrels are cashing their federal benefits and running to the strip club for a lap dance. They are so serious about propagandizing US voters with this BS, that they are actually trying to pass a law to prevent their made-up complaint.

The GOP is cultivating a staggeringly disdainful view of Americans who are struggling to get by in the wake of the Great Recession. Seeking to gut the social safety net programs on which an increasing number of Americans rely, Republicans have demonized the poor as dependent, lazy drug-users who pilfer Uncle Sam for trips to Hawaii. In that vein, House Republicans are bringing a bill to the floor today to ensure that low-income Americans don’t use federal benefits to pay for “lap dances.” The bill’s sponsor Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-LA) says he’s trying to close a “strip-club loophole” which allows beneficiaries of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program use state-issued debit cards at strip clubs, casinos, and liquor stores. “It’s pretty rampant around the country,” he insists. Naturally, no one thinks adult entertainment is an appropriate use for TANF funds. But as Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Melissa Boteach notes, the use of funds at strip clubs, liquor stores, and casinos is hardly a “pressing national crisis,” but rather a politically valuable message for the GOP, regardless of its veracity, because it’s useful to the GOP to paint vulnerable Americans as “delinquent and criminally inclined“… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

On the other hand, maybe I’m being to quick to dismiss the Republicans’ absurd claims. After all, when it comes to strip clubs, I have to admit that they are a Republican area of expertise, as this Rachel Maddow video from March 2010 reveals.

In addition, the strip clubs and other adult “entertainers” in Tampa, FL are drooling in anticipation of the Republican convention this fall, as Cenk Uygur explains.

When I lived in Phoenix in the 1970s, I had a friend, who was a call girl. It was not a professional relationship. She explained to me that when Republicans came to town for meetings, especially Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the local girls had to import friends from Las Vegas, because the locals could not handle the huge increase in business.