States consider drug tests for welfare recipients

[Jeep789]

Source: Associated Press

By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer Tom Breen, Associated Press Writer – 57 mins ago
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 fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations 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?"



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_bi_ge/states_welfare_with_strings

---

Ugh, will this idiocy never end?

[Jeep789]

1. And don't miss this paragraph:

"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."

[hobbit709]

2. The first people that should be tested are the legislators

I'd like to know what they're on to come up with this kind of crap.

[Jeep789]

3. No kidding

Does this mean they will quit charging people who do drugs Unemployment Insurance? Maybe they shouldn't be required to pay taxes either since they won't be entitled to any benefits.

[saigon68]

24. Star Wars ? NO Jar Wars-- get ready to Piss in a Jar

They will have to construct Urine Collection Stations at every Human Services Office.

How about at the entrance to every School, Sports Venue (Not for the participants However) etc.

This should promote a few more jobs for the Proletariat examining never ending Boxes, crates pallets and semi-trucks loaded with Urine Jars

[Jeep789]

27. LOL - Job creation - surprised Bush didn't think of it

Actually, no i'm not.

[acmavm]

13. No kidding. How many of these disasterous derivative trades were the

result of a 'drug fueled' frenzy? Those Wall Street boys don't do drugs?

Oh please!

And they're the biggest welfare recipients this planet has ever spit out.

[Jeep789]

15. And never forget Iran-Contra where the government flooded

the market with drugs.

[acmavm]

22. Exactly. Considering the CIA has a history of funding its most dirty and

dispicable acts by drug running, this is just insane.

[Jeep789]

23. No insane, immoral yes but perfectly sane

if you want to keep a "population" down.

[TygrBright]

Hey, it's a JOB CREATION program! Think how many pee test processors they'll have to hire!

All on the taxpayer's dime, of course.

Brilliant!

ironically,
Bright

[Birthmark]

4. I'm sure this is what the Founders had in mind.

The freedom to pee in a cup!!

[Jeep789]

5. Lol - or forfeit all rights nt

[slay]

6. Ah I see - the old, "Lets fuck with the poor and helpless" shit AGAIN!

FUCK! How humiliating, embarrasing, dehumanizing, cruel, and a severe invasion of privacy! I don't see CEO's who steal BILLIONS lining up to pee in cup! I can't believe America has sunk to this! This is class warfare pure and simple! Perhaps one day people will rise up and say ENOUGH!

[Jeep789]

8. Perhaps they should implement drug and alcohol testing

before implementing bonuses in bailed out institutions and congress or better yet, perhaps we should implement ethics and iq testing before doing so.

[slay]

9. heh

I'm never for drug testing without cause. People are supposed to be presumed innocent - but not with drugs tests! You are guilty til you pee in a cup and prove yourself innocent. Proof that the supreme court is rigged or this would be illegal.

[Jeep789]

11. Presumed innocent?

What country are you living in? Ha, they should start with the supreme court. I'd give odds against Thomas, Roberts or Scalia being able to pass a drug/alcohol or ethics test while on duty. I'll even throw in the iq test for Thomas.

[slay]

25. I doubt he can even spell IQ

"A Wild and Ugly Night With Judge Clarence Thomas...Bad Craziness in
Sheep Country...Sexual Harassment Then and Now...A Nasty Christmas
Flashback and a Nation of Jailers

Fear and Loathing in Elko

by Hunter S. Thompson

from Rolling Stone #622, January 23, 1992

Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Sexual Harassment Then
and Now..The Ghost of Long Dong Thomas...The Road Full of Forks"

Dear Jann,

God damn, I wish you were here to enjoy this beautiful weather with
me. It is autumn, as you know, and things are beginning to die. It is
so wonderful to be out in the crisp fall air, with the leaves turning
gold and the grass turning brown, and the warmth going out of the
sunlight and big hot fires in the fireplace while Buddy rakes the
lawn. We see a lot of bombs on TV because we watch it a lot more, now
that the days get shorter and shorter, and darkness comes so soon, and
all the flowers die from freezing.

full article: http://www.gonzo.org/elko.txt

Hilarious Clarence Thomas piece by the great Hunter S. Thompson

[Jeep789]

26. After Thomas, I suppose, Dubya shouldn't have surprised us nt

[depakid]

7. It's always impressive how ideologues NEVER consider costs when hoisting morals onto folks

Aside from the considerable expense of testing and administration (that could be used for other purposes) there will also be cost shifting to other agencies and the criminal justice system under these plans.

But practical concerns have never stopped an ideologue.

[Jeep789]

10. Ah yes, and the children of those recently laid off but having

been deemed to have recently partook, be damned too. Aside from the ridiculous costs this would entail, are we now attempting to starve drug users? Wouldn't it be more humane to just shoot them?

[depakid]

28. Don't worry about the children- they'll be placed in foster care

and I say that only half facetiously.

[Jeep789]

29. But shouldn't we test them too? nt

[Arkansas Granny]

53. They probably figure that the cost of the testing would be more than made

up by the savings realized by getting those druggies off the welfare roles. It's our tax dollars at work.

[ejpoeta]

12. this is just friggin ridiculous!!!

as a person who has had to swallow my pride and go get help before.... it appalls me! Like anyone WANTS to have to be on food stamps or unemployment for that matter! Must be nice to sit in your offices and decree things like that. Yes, let's just make poor folks feel even more like dirt. Think about it. When you are poor, it's like you are in a deep hole. and it's impossible to climb out of that hole. so let's throw dirt on top.

[Jeep789]

14. Hey, at least they are not advocating strip searching them and

water-boarding to get the truth of their circumstances out of them yet. We should be grateful. :sarcasm:

[kdmorris]

17. Not yet, anyway n/t

[ejpoeta]

33. my husband seems to think this is a GOOD idea. wtf!

[Jeep789]

37. The strip searching?

Maybe you should accommodate him to keep him from taking out his fantasies on the rest of us. lol

Whatever you do, don't go for the water-boarding.

[ejpoeta]

51. LOL! yeah, strip searching he would probably like. hee hee.

[kdmorris]

16. Oh, sure, because all those people WANT to get food stamps, etc

Just another humiliating hoop to jump through to fuck with the poor. Everyone who falls on hard times in this country is presumed to be a liar and a thief (and a whore, if you are a woman). Now I guess they presume that everyone is a on drugs, too.

Fuck this. I hate morons like this guy.

[Jeep789]

19. They want to apply it to unemployment insurance too

And so what if they are on drugs? Does that mean we can just ignore them? What do they suppose these people will do, just die away and "decrease the surplus population"?

I don't do drugs (illegal ones anyway) but this really incenses me.

[Swagman]

18. and so the backlash begins-blame the downtroden for their own woes

revolting disgusting politicians..hate them

[Jeep789]

21. While we bail out the fortunate from their misfortunes nt

[Auggie]

20. Keep it up pukes...

Get people REAL ANGRY. Get them to PAY ATTENTION. Then they'll vote your sorry asses out of office.

[ThomCat]

30. "Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs,"

Is he nuts? Of course people are being forced into these assistance programs. It's that or starve.

While assholes like this lower taxes on rich people, and gut regulations that keep corporations in line, here they go beating the victims again. Poor people are always there, convenient victims, easy to scapegoat.

[Jeep789]

32. But Thom you do have a choice

and they would prefer, you starve. I think they forget that there is another choice and that is that we band together and quit allowing them to even consider uttering such ridiculousness at the risk of extreme ridicule but that may just be a fantasy of mine.

[radfringe]

31. and who pays for the "testing"?

at a time when states are wringing their hands over budget deficits, declining tax revenues - they want to add another layer of expenses?

who's going to pay for the testing? the states? not likely - they don't have the money now to fund what needs to be funded.

make the person applying pay? how many people won't apply for benefits - not because they do drugs or are afraid of what the test results may show - but because they don't have the freaking money to pay for the tests.

insurance companies? HA! don't make me laugh....

[Jeep789]

35. Of course, they will want them to pay

not bloody likely they will want to pay for their own requirement. Maybe they will take it out of the first year of welfare checks for those that pass. Those that don't can be placed in debtor's prisons (where they will be required to pay for their cell, bread and water or do without)until they can pay it off or die.

[zbdent]

34. I wonder why Bush was never "randomly" tested ...

as I understand it, nearly all govt. employees are subject to random drug testing (well, all except "elected" officials, apparently ...)

[Jeep789]

36. You have it wrong. Hardly any government employees are

randomly tested. Bush was supposed to be tested (pre-arranged, he knew when) as a member of the guard but he ran away and hid instead.

[zbdent]

48. I understand that the word "random" is set in there to make it appear that

they're looking for all abusers, not just the stereotypical suspects ...

Just like when I was flying a few years back ...

the representative at the gate assured us over the loudspeaker that these checks were "totally random" ... and then took a woman and her 3-year-old as one of those to be "checked" ... it just so happened that, in a random selection out of a crowd of over 100 people, one of the first selected appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent ...

[Epiphany4z]

38. just stupid and pointless

time would be better spent giving our law makers IQ and psychological reviews before they run for office....only half loling.....

I think this is just twisted.

[Jeep789]

39. Maybe it isn't as pointless as you think

Maybe this is the straw that makes us demand a pullback from this ridiculousness. I think their advocating this at this time along with Unemployment Insurance recipients might just be enough. But I am probably being far too hopeful.

[Bluenorthwest]

40. Folks on the public dole who should be tested first

include the Senate and the House, in DC and each State Capitol. And most certainly the bankers and traders who took public money. The most coked up people on the face of the freaking Earth are financial types. Wall St, bad. But the real wiffers are the City of London denizens, snorting their way through life, sniff sniff. It is no suprise, none at all, that the AIG office that acted like junkies was the London office. The City is more coked up than Mork from Ork on tape night. And they got something for less than nothing, they were rewarded for failure.

[Jeep789]

41. Hmm, Then again working for the government might make one

require drugs. But those getting their drugs for free, through favors or kickbacks, by all means go after them. They should have to grow there own or purchase it just like the rest of us. lol

[Bluenorthwest]

46. The drugs those folks favor

can not be grown, they must be chemically produced.
I mean, being unemployed might make one require drugs as well, but they are not thinking about that, now are they?

[Romulox]

42. I GUARANTEE some of our stimulus $$$ went to support some AIG employees coke habit

Let's start there.

[Jeep789]

44. Not to mention, radio hosts nt

[fasttense]

43. Why don't Republicons just admit it? They just want all us unemployed

and on welfare to be locked up and jailed. At least then they would be honest.

Lat I looked it wasn't a crime to be either unemployed or on welfare but that is what the Republicons want. Next anyone on Social Security should be jailed. Put all them poor old people away for the rest of their short lives.

[Jeep789]

45. You got it. nt

[Orrex]

47. I understand that the plan is to give them cold cheese sandwiches as 'courtesy lunches'

Actually, I don't see what the big deal is; these people are receiving hundreds of taxpayer dollars for free, so they should be subjected to the same drug testing that Wall Street execs were subjected to when they received trillions of taxpayer dollars for free.

Oh, wait a minute...

[droidamus2]

49. Idiots!

Lets see, what happens when people addicted to drugs can't find the money to pay for their addiction? Answer, crime. Okay I am not saying we should that welfare is there just so people can support their drug habits but if that is the ultimate result then you have to look to the consequences. Now add in if these same people have children to support do you really think they are just going to go lay down and starve to death they will find a way to support themselves whether it be legal or illegal.

If these idiot lawmakers were interested in helping these people with rehab that would be one thing but their obvious focus is on coming up with some reason to deny these people aid. Basically they see down and out people and want to kick them one more time. Another possibility is that they figure they will be able to push these people into all those low paying jobs that are going to need workers when they kick all the illegal aliens out of the country. This is just one more step toward a police state where people are so used to the government looking into and controlling the most intimate parts of their lives that they just lay down and give up all their civil rights.

[Soylent Brice]

50. interesting. perhaps they should have drug tested wall street as well as a

condition for receiving TARP.

[lonestarnot]

52. The old cocaine v crack deal!

[slay]

56. Indeed - class warfare

The rich use cocaine and would not be in a position to be FORCED to take a drug test. Argh!

[TygrBright]

54. Talk about "Let Them Eat Cake...." Wow. Could these scoundrels get any viler? n/t

[mbperrin]

55. Will this include AIG execs and other millionaires now on the government

tit?

Those who get the most should go first!

[Indy Lurker]

57. Will it include

executives receiving TARP money?