It is becoming increasingly likely that, come Christmas Eve, Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, will be visited by three very angry spirits—the Ghosts of Christmas Past, the Ghost Of Christmas Present, and the Ghost Of Let Me Hit You With This Croquet Mallet.

The 2013-15 state budget created a rule for some recipients of the state's food stamp program known as FoodShare: If you're an able-bodied adult without children living at home, you must work at least 80 hours a month or look for work to stay in the program. That rule went into effect in April, and between July and September, about 25 percent of the 60,000 recipients eligible to work were dropped from the program when the penalty took effect, according to DHS data. Meanwhile, about 4,500 recipients found work through a new job training program for FoodShare recipients. Participants can get three months of FoodShare benefits before being kicked out of the program if they decline to look for work.

It is an article of rightwing faith that churches and other private institutions do a better job of charity work than does the government, which encourages "dependency" or some such. Of course, when the state throws up its hands, it causes chaos in the soup kitchens and food pantries as well.

"They will bankrupt our food banks," said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food. In Wisconsin, about 770,000 people receive FoodShare benefits as of September, according to DHS. The law automatically enrolls eligible recipients in a program designed to help them find employment called the FoodShare Employment and Training program. Since the new law took effect, just 7 percent of recipients in Milwaukee County—where about half of the able-bodied childless adult recipients live—that were referred to the program were placed in jobs, state data show.

This is stupid. This is cruel. You rig your state's economy so that jobs flee by the thousands and then you tie food stamps to employment and—presto!—you've "cut government spending." Merry Christmas, all ye poor people of Wisconsin. You are nothing but a line item now.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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