UPDATE: “If you’re on the dole, you shouldn’t be on the pole,” says a Republican lawmaker.
Rep. Dan Pabon, the guy in the blue shirt and a Denver Democrat, is surrounded by Republican lawmakers who supported an amendment prohibiting welfare benefits from being withdrawn from ATM machines at strip clubs.During a budget debate on the House floor tonight, Democrat Rep. Dan Pabon and a group of Republican lawmakers offered an amendment dealing with a hot topic that’s been debated before: ATM withdrawals of welfare money at strip clubs, casinos and liquor stores.
A bill sponsored by Pabon to prohibit that practice at strip clubs and adult entertainment joints, in addition to already banned locations, passed the House but died in the Senate two years ago.
Congress has since passed a nearly identical measure, and some House Republicans wanted to comply with the new federal law by offering the ban in a budget amendment. They asked Pabon, apparently a guy ahead of his time, for his support. Gladly, the assistant majority leader said.
But Democrats defeated the amendment, which didn’t go unnoticed by House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, who gleefully pointed out to Pabon how his own caucus just rolled its third-ranking member.
Later in the debate, as Rep. Lois Landgraf, R-Fountain, tried to offer the amendment again, she said, “If you’re on the dole, you shouldn’t be on the pole.”
That was too much for Rep. Jenise May, D-Aurora, who told her colleagues she works in a poor part of town where there are no banks or grocery stores close by and some constituent don’t have cars. She said they withdraw their welfare benefits from a strip club or liquor store ATM because it is close to their home.