By Bill Maher

Jeb Bush has announced that when he’s president he’ll pretty much dismantle the federal social safety net as we know it. He said he’ll eliminate food stamps, all federal housing assistance programs and the federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

What Bush wants to do instead is send what he calls federal “right to rise” grants (with strict work requirements and time limits) to the states and let them disburse the money as they see fit. Why would he do that? Because he’s a small-government, states-rights kind of guy? Yes, but mostly because he knows that the states are overwhelmingly run by Republicans.

Democrats hold the governor’s office and both legislative chambers in just seven states, while Republicans control the governor’s office and both chambers in 24 states. 31 of the 50 states have Republican governors and Republicans control 68 of the nation’s 98 partisan state legislative chambers.

And if you want to know how empathetic and generous Republican-led states are at making sure the poor get what they need, look no further than how Obamacare was implemented – or in the case of these Republican states, cock-blocked.

Of course Republicans want all decisions and disbursements returned to the states because that’s where they still rule. That’s where it’s still okay to be a callous, fact-averse nut and still be in charge.

Arizona Republicans just appointed a new chair of their Senate Education Committee, and it’s state Senator Sylvia Allen, who’s suggested that church attendance be mandatory, bemoaned that religion has been “kicked out of our schools” and said the Earth “has been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn't been done away with.” Oh, and she believes the Obama feds are poisoning Americans en masse with secret “chemtrails,” writing, “I have watched the chemtrails move out until the entire sky is covered with flimsy, thin cloud cover. It is not the regular exhaust coming from the plane it is something they are spraying.” This is to whom Jeb Bush wants to return the decision-making?