CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs. Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing. The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates(Communist fucktards with no common sense, an IQ rivaling a stapler, and nothing better to do)
fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations worse.
If you happen to be one of these communist fucktards reading my blog, I'm going to tell you a secret. If the individual is in such a "desperate" situation, he or she should not be spending money that he or she does not have, on drugs. Drug testing will not worsen desperate situations, it will make situations less desperate. At the very least it will weed out people who are so stupid that they deserve to starve to death in the gutter anyhow. I'm not sympathetic to people who actively make their own bad situation worse.
Those in favor of the drug tests say they are motivated out of a concern for their constituents' health and ability to put themselves on more solid financial footing once the economy rebounds. But proponents concede they also want to send a message: you don't get something for nothing.
"Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs," said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Viginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. "If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?" Blair is proposing the most comprehensive measure in the country, as it would apply to anyone applying for food stamps, unemployment compensation or the federal programs usually known as "welfare": Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Women, Infants and Children.
Lawmakers in other states are offering similar, but more modest proposals. On Wednesday, the Kansas House of Representatives approved a measure mandating drug testing for the 14,000 or so people getting cash assistance from the state, which now goes before the state senate. In February, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously passed a measure that would require drug testing as a condition of receiving TANF benefits, and similar bills have been introduced in Missouri and Hawaii.
A Florida senator has proposed a bill linking unemployment compensation to drug testing, and a member of Minnesota's House of Representatives has a bill requiring drug tests of people who get public assistance under a state program there. A January attempt in the Arizona Senate to establish such a law failed. In the past, such efforts have been stymied by legal and cost concerns, said Christine Nelson, a program manager with the National Conference of State Legislatures.
But states' bigger fiscal crises, and the surging demand for public assistance, could change that. "It's an example of where you could cut costs at the expense of a segment of society that's least able to defend themselves," said Frank Crabtree, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Holy mother of Jesus H. Fucking Christ do I fucking hate the American Communist Litigation Unit. Tell me Frankie boy, how is the requirement that recipients of the tax money of the public don't engage in what is still considered illegal activity something negative? I'm not allowed to do drugs! Why the fuck should I not be allowed to do drugs but I should be forced to give up part of my paycheck to support some piece of shit who sits around all day and does drugs while I go to work? How the fuck is this fair Frank, you moronic asshole? I have to work for my money and this "segment of society" may or may not actually want to work but if they want to receive money there should be stipulations on it.
I am quite confident that not doing drugs (not engaging in illegal activity) is a more than reasonable stipulation. If you don't have your own job, you don't have your own money. If you don't have your own money, you can't afford drugs. I'm pretty sure the commies should quit bitching and deal with this because it's fair. I don't think welfare should cover anything that isn't absolutely necessary for survival. No soda, no chips, no candy or junk food, no snack cakes, no cigarettes, no televisions, internet or cable tv. I know for a fact that some of these people live better with no job than some people I know who work two.
Drug testing is not the only restriction envisioned for people receiving public assistance: a bill in the Tennessee Legislature would cap lottery winnings for recipients at $600.
I love you Tennessee! I don't see how it's fair that welfare recipients play the lottery and end up getting rich because of money that I was forced to give them. I don't think they should be allowed at all. There should simple be no cash at all given to welfare recipients. Give them a gas card, a food card, and a necessary repairs card and they only work in select businesses.
There seems to be no coordinated move around the country to push these bills, and similar proposals have arisen periodically since federal welfare reform in the 1990s. But the appearance of a cluster of such proposals in the midst of the recession shows lawmakers are newly engaged about who is getting public assistance. Particularly troubling to some policy analysts is the drive to drug test people collecting unemployment insurance, whose numbers nationwide now exceed 5.4 million, the highest total on records dating back to 1967.
"It doesn't seem like the kind of thing to bring up during a recession," said Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "People who are unemployed, who have lost their job, that's a sympathetic group. Americans are tuned into that, because they're worried they'll be next." Indeed, these proposals are coming at a time when more Americans find themselves in need of public assistance. Although the number of TANF recipients has stayed relatively stable at 3.8 million in the last year, claims for unemployment benefits and food stamps have soared.
In December, more than 31.7 million Americans were receiving food stamp benefits, compared with 27.5 million the year before. The link between public assistance and drug testing stems from the Congressional overhaul of welfare in the 1990s, which allowed states to implement drug testing as a condition of receiving help. But a federal court struck down a Michigan law that would have allowed for "random, suspicionless" testing, saying it violated the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure, said Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
At least six states — Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Virginia — tie eligibility for some public assistance to drug testing for convicted felons or parolees, according to the NCSL. Nelson said programs that screen welfare applicants by assigning them to case workers for interviews have shown some success without the need for drug tests. These alternative measures offer treatment, but can also threaten future benefits if drug problems persist, she said. They also cost less than the $400 or so needed for tests that can catch a sufficient range of illegal drugs, and rule out false positive results with a follow-up test, she said.
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