And our new wingnut majority continues to impress:
Republican state lawmakers are starting a push to require some drug testing of some welfare recipients.
A Senate panel is considering a bill Tuesday establishing a three-county drug testing pilot program. It would apply to beneficiaries of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program.
Reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use would be required. The bill’s examples include missed appointments, demeanor, police records, previous employment or job application in an industry requiring drug screening, termination from a job because of illegal drug use or other drug screening records.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says at least 12 states have passed laws requiring drug testing for public assistance.
In December, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that Florida’s law was unconstitutional. Florida’s testing covered all of its state program applicants.
Despite the fact that it has repeatedly been proven to do nothing except show that most people receiving benefits don’t do drugs (again, the reason broke people don’t do drugs is because… they are broke and can’t afford them) and the fact that it was found unconstitutional, our wingnuts just know they can find a way to make the program work.
Teahadism can’t fail, it can only be failed.
Botsplainer
I’m sure that there is some young buck eating a T-Bone that didn’t deserve it, thereby depriving an honest workingman of the benefits by which he could acquire more oxycontin.
Calouste
Can’t the West Virginia Democrats, if there are any, add a rider that would require elected officials to have drug tests as well?
And how, even in West Virginia, does applying for a job in an industry requiring drug screening make a reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use.
J C
You completely missed the point. Our brains aren’t wired to remember if something turned out to be true, only that we remember it was said. Republicans can’t cut food stamps to hungry kids without incredible blowback. They can cut foodstamps to drug addicts and no one blinks an eye.
They are trying to get the idea in American’s Head’s that Welfare Recipients are drug addicts. It’s not a tea party fail if Americans think it’s true. The laws’ successes and failures are irrelevant.
Mustang Bobby
One of the D’oh elements of the Florida law — aside from it being unconstitutional — was the provision that the person being tested would be reimbursed for the cost of the test if it came back negative. It ended up costing the state more in reimbursements than it did in the savings of not paying out the benefits to the folks who flunked the pee-test.
Oh, and will the good people of West Virginia be on the hook for the legal fees when the inevitable case goes to court?
Mike in NC
On a related note, how many states have passed/implemented slut-shaming vaginal probe laws like they debated in Virginia?
trollhattan
Isn’t the real question: “Who owns the lab that will hold the testing contract?”
Question the second: “What’s the ethnic makeup of the three counties in the pilot test?”
Bill Arnold
Out of curiosity, do these tests detect (ethyl) alcohol abuse and punish people for it too, or does this testing encourage a shift to alcohol as drug of choice? (Is this a stealth giveaway to “Big Alcohol”?)
boatboy_srq
Anything that keeps water quality inspections and testing out of the state budget because it’s not affordable is appropriate expenditure for WV wingnuts.
Svensker
Let’s test the banksters for cocaine use before they get any more tax breaks, subsidies or bailouts. How ’bout that?
Cluttered Mind
I am in full support of mandatory drug testing for wingnut welfare recipients. I’m sure we could find some really fun stuff in the tox screens of the Breitbart staff.
catclub
@trollhattan: this. I was going to put it as :
Then I remembered it also enriches the pols that get kickbacks from the testing company.
Betty Cracker
@Mustang Bobby: Yeah, but Rick Scott’s stake in the lab chain ensured he’d profit anyway, so it’s all good.
justawriter
My counter proposal would be mandatory drug testing for anyone receiving a tax refund larger than the poverty level income.
ranchandsyrup
no idea is too dumb, as long as it pleases the wingnut base.
catclub
@Calouste:
ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me.
If you are applying for TANF then you have no job. If you have no job but DID work in an industry that requires drug tests, then ipso facto presto chango, you must have been fired for drug use. Q fuckin ED
Punchy
Simplified that for reality’s sake.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I don’t know exactly how far behind the times y’all are there in WV, but there’s this shitty band known as “Styx” that you’d do well to avoid.
Davis X. Machina
Landslide LePage is going to push for the same thing here in Maine.
boatboy_srq
@Davis X. Machina: You’re kidding. It took them thirty years to turn the Pejepscot River some other color than green. That was in the 70s and 80s.
BLEEPing idjits.
C.V. Danes
It’s only purpose is to further stigmatize those who need assistance. If they want to make it fair, they would include elected and appointed government officials to the drug testing, too.
tazj
I wish these WV legislators had to watch the PBS documentary that aired last night “A Path Appears.” The show was about how poverty effects young women and girls around the world. However, one section focused on two young women and their daughters in West Virginia and how difficult it was for them to escape the poverty there.
I found myself in awe of the strength of these women and what they had to endure in childhood and in trying to create a better life for their kids.
I was a food stamp recipient as a child, and I’m always bothered when people want to make life more difficult for people already having problems.
Also, as you have already stated it’s not a smart or “fiscally conservative” use of taxpayer dollars.
trollhattan
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Best advice of the still-young day. Whatever else you may do, definitely do not come sail away.
Mustang Bobby
@Betty Cracker: I’d like to see the lab results on Rick Scott to find out what species he is. My money’s on reptile. Have you ever seen him sweat?
D58826
OT but the wing-nut freak out over the Crusades has gotten a bit stale. Fortunately the White House has decided that they need to give Faux news and the rest of the wing nuts a new topic for a new week, It seems Obama said that more people are affected by climate change than terrorism. That should be good for an 9.0 freakout on the open ended Hanmnity-Palin scale
Paul in KY
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Man, Styx is a pretty damn good band. Many great songs in 70s!
NeutronFlux
My first thought was that at least we don’t do this in Kansas. Then I Googled. Shit.
Buddy H
Mandatory drug tests for all police. Test them for coke and steroids.
Cluttered Mind
@Buddy H: I would personally love to see those tests run and then see the stats on narcotics cops.
Buddy H
Roid rage has to be the reason for all their antics lately.
boatboy_srq
@trollhattan: Even if, like WV assistance recipients, you’ve got too much time on your hands?
Renie
Wonder how ‘demeanor’ is going to be interpreted?
trollhattan
@boatboy_srq:
Ooh, well played. Evil, but well-played.
Tree With Water
This legislative ploy has no more to do with ‘drug abuse’ than the man on the moon. It’s crystal clear the effort is all about an “obey my authority” mentality cultivated by low rent politicians to rile their birdbrain galleries. It’s all about political power as practiced by the republican party, and certain of their fellow traveling democrats. Forcing an individual to piss into a bottle-or-else is downright un-American, and I piss on those who advocate it under the guise of promoting the general welfare.
waspuppet
Ahem …
Tenar Darell
@John Cole
Based on what you’re saying, evidence won’t help this problem. But here’s more evidence from Tennessee that this is not only punitive to the poor and vulnerable, but a total effing waste of effing time and money.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
Wonder how many of the people who administer the tests would pass?
Does anyone recall a rumor, circa 2003, that bin Laden was going to buy 20 tons of coke, poison it, and have it distributed in the US? It would have been a brilliant way to wipe out our law enforcement, legal system, professional classes, political “system”, etc. “Your country is in chaos because your War on Drugs was a colossal failure.”