Kansas is famous.

Of course, in this Twitter era, you can become “famous” in a few hours, as retweets zip a story around the world and back. But this so-called “fame” frequently blooms as “notoriety.”

In other words, you become famous because you did something foolish or wrong or both (think Justin Bieber). Often this failure is spectacular, which leads us directly to Kansas’s growing “fame.”

Most recently, of course, our fame comes through non-stop appearances in the national media, from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and US News to the Daily Show, along with dozens of web sites. To be sure, the state has produced a host of policy gaffes and nutty political pronouncements over the past few years, but the collective reactions to the bill that restricts welfare spending has raised the level of ridicule to a new, unprecedented level.

The basics are well known. The Legislature passed and the governor has now signed a bill that drastically limits the use of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds, eliminating spending for everything from the mundane (movies) to the mean-spirited (swimming pool admission) to the absurd (cruises). In addition, ATM withdrawals would be limited to $25 per day, thus assuring that many recipients would incur substantial bank fees.

The legislation, brilliantly given the Orwellian title of the Hope, Opportunity and Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Act, represents the acme of the Legislature’s 2015 buffoonery, as it avoids dealing with a $600 million shortfall in revenues.

This legislation has received its fair share of attention, in the state, national, and even international press, so my purpose here is not to pile on as to the bill’s substance. Rather, we should worry about the range and depth of reactions to these news stories, editorials, blogs, and comedy shows.

Kansas has, once again, become famous, but in the worst possible way.

The young, hip, smart audience for Jon Stewart or John Oliver finds Kansas being mocked, not just in one-liners, but in Stewart’s 8-minute barrage of sarcasm and ridicule.

Legislators may see this as unfair, representing some despicable, predictable coastal bias, but talented young entrepreneurs and prospective employees will likely cross off the possibility of ever working here.

US News, scarcely a liberal publication, quotes state Sen. Michael O’Donnell (R- Sedgwick), a lead advocate for the bill: “This is about having a great life. The magazine snaps back “Nonsense. This is about political bullying, nothing more.”

Referring to the combination of guns and welfare legislation recently passed, one website asks, rhetorically: “People Can Be Trusted with Guns But Not Welfare?” Of course, the welfare legislation does not restrict spending on firearms and ammo.

The slings and arrows go on and on, not just on recent legislation, but on a host of recent policies enacted with little foresight. What do we get? The HOPE Act. Billions of dollars in declining revenues and program cutbacks.

Pretty clearly the state has more problems in managing money than do the poor.

That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is the nation’s conclusion that we truly are a bunch of rubes, whose elected officials continually seek out non-problems, while ignoring real ones.

When you think things can’t get worse, they do. The Kansas Department of Children and Families responded on Facebook to “to outrageous political attacks by liberal media organizations and activists” with what it called the “facts” of the agency’s virtuous performance. This simply recycled the TANF story for another round of jokes, thus demonstrating the political ineptness of the agency.

To be sure, right-wing legislators have scored some political points with their constituents, but at what price? Once again, Kansas is ridiculed, not respected. We win notoriety, not fame, and the damage done will far outweigh whatever measly benefits lower income taxes might produce.

Burdett Loomis is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.