| These are the first paragraphs from an editorial that ran last year in a Florida newspaper. Florida's Republican lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott claimed legislation requiring welfare recipients to be tested for drugs would knock many potential recipients off the welfare rolls, saving the state's taxpayers millions of dollars. But, during the four months that the law was in effect before a federal judge temporarily suspended the law as unconstitutional, the testing program not only didn't save taxpayers money, it cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. The program, though, probably reduced the number of applicants for public assistance because of a potential failure to pass the drug test, right? No, that didn't happen either.
So, less than a year ago, Florida wanted to drug test people on welfare, spent tens of thousands of dollars to implement the program, had to defend it in court (along the way getting the thing temporarily shelved over Constitutional issues related to unwarranted searches and seizures ... the sorts of things conservatives are supposed to hate), and wound up finding out that people on welfare in Florida either don't use drugs or are smart enough to outwit a drug test. In other words, drug testing welfare recipients was a complete flop before you even got to arguing over whether it's humane or violates the purported political principles of the people espousing its value. Today, rolls in this news. LANSING, MI - The debate about whether Michigan should start drug testing some of its welfare recipients is renewing in the state Legislature. A bill reintroduced this year and set for a hearing today in a House committee calls for the state to start a suspicion-based substance abuse screening and testing program for cash assistance welfare recipients in the state’s Family Independence Program. The plan would not cover food assistance benefit programs.
Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats until his children put him into a substandard nursing home. Shame a man into asking about fish, and you don't have to worry about him bothering you. |
