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A couple of years ago, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) thought he'd come up with a fairly clever idea. After arguing that Floridians on welfare were more likely to be drug addicts -- a claim that went unsubstantiated -- the Republican governor thought it'd a great idea to force welfare applicants to take a drug test before claiming benefits to which they're legally entitled.
For Scott, it checked a lot of boxes -- it was part of an intrusive, big-government conservatism he tends to like; it punished and shamed the poor; and if his thesis was correct, the plan would save Florida money when drug users withdrew from the public-assistance system.
Scott's idea failed miserably. Only about 2% of applicants tested positive, and Florida was forced to reimburse everyone else for the cost of the drug test, plus pay for staff and administrative costs for the drug-testing program, plus pay the legal fees to defend the policy against court challenges -- and the challenges were successful.
After seeing all of this unfold in the Sunshine State, Republican policymakers still want to bring this idea to their own state. Laura Clawson explained the other day:
Looking at the range of drug testing-for-benefits bills being pushed in state legislatures across the country, you almost have to suspect Republicans of some kind of urine fetish. In addition to all the states that are debating or have passed bills requiring people applying for unemployment insurance benefits to pee in cups, drug-testing bills aimed at welfare applicants are being introduced in three states.
The specifics would be ripe for comedy if we weren't talking about a concerted effort by the powerful to stigmatize vulnerable people as drug addicts, as if that's the only reason a person might need help in an economy in which there are still more than three job-seekers for every job opening.
Proposals have advanced in Ohio, Virginia, and Kansas, and related measures are under consideration in Indiana and the state of Washington.
Keep in mind, other recipients of public funds -- businesses that receive corporate welfare, for example -- are never subjected to drug tests, only low-income people who are struggling.
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Let us just test any recipient of Government funds:
Law Makers
Police
Teachers
All corporate employees who receive government contracts
Social security recipients
All citizens of any country that receive foreign aid
You forgot one big--and very well compensated--group: Wall Street employees, who continue to benefit from everything from TARP (or, as some of us referred to it, the "Financial Industry Employee Bonus Enrichment Act of 2008") to "Quantitative Easing" by the Fed.
How about if we tax at 100% the compensation of every financial industry employee who is a substance abuser!
Oh heck, let's just drug-test everyone in the world, every day. We could have a global, drug test-based economy. JOBS!
Will anyone be testing "my decisions are oh so important" politicians for the "3 martini lunch"?
Oh, just cut to the quick: Test Boehner as he returns from breakfast, coffee break, lunch, mid-day snack ...
You also forgot testing all our legislators; Governors, Senators and Congressmen
The main point is that the war on drugs has failed. It is NOT an appropriate or effective way to deal with drug addiction and the only thing it creates is criminals.
i live in ks, and receive social sec disability for the terminal illness huntingtons. i may live another ten years. only 37, and i don't think the nut jobs in congress have any room to talk. i did'nt catch exactly , gov scott, any of them, have the right to use addiction in that neg connotation. using or recovering. besides, it's my money paid in over the 20 plus years i busted my ass working, and paying in. and i'm scared @!$%#less of this state gov, who are red, red, red, rep., even voted against sandy relief. plus, i had one felony charge over a car wreck, that could red flag me. i would refuse their test on principle, and loose my check. i also have access to medicare, would they like to take it as well? glad i'm dying, these big brother b.s isn't right in the first place. we're liberals and i stand out like a sore thumb w that old, charge. despite it being the only one ever. there are so many reasons this thinking departs from sanity, not the least of which is, it's not they're concern what we chose to do,especially since it's the end of my life, and i'm doing what ever the hell i damn well please, i'm a grown woman, kinda. we could not make it wo that income. by the way, i'm a worker, i have a work ethic. and i worked right up my diagnosis. what happens to me? how can a person who's not on paper anymore, HAVE to do anything like that for the state, is it constitutional? is it sane? forgive me if this is choppy, it's a side effect, which pisses me off cuz i write. so, i have to fight a neurological disease, and the government ?
Hell's littlest angel..very clever. My first genuine smile today.
Hey, they already do this. I am a teacher and have worked other JOBS where I have been subject to drug testing to keep my job and my paycheck.
I don't think that people on welfare should feel free to spend the government's money on illegal drugs.
I was on government assistance right out of college with two small children. Taking a drug test would have been so much LESS stressful and intrusive than some of the other things they wanted to know about my life.
Most employees of any large corporation and even allot of small businesses, including the employees of MSNBC, have been subject to mandatory drug testing. Where's the out cry to the private sector and do the same arguments apply? If you truly believe, they should.
I understand that all but 2% of the people that have taken the drug tests in Florida for public assistance have passed but I would like to see the studies including those that have opted out of the programs choosing not to take the drug tests knowing they would fail. Is the state saving money overall compared to numbers before the tests or not?
Don't forget the farmers getting their subsidies to not plant crops!
All members of Congress and State Governments should be drug tested and psych tested before they get a single pay check.
I would settle for an IQ test
Sick and Efin Tired - Amen!
Further proof that "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
In WackoWorld, never let facts get in the way of Revealed Truth. Ronnie Ray Gun's Cadillac-drivin' welfare queens are out there, we just know it, snortin' that cocaine an' breedin' like flies to sponge off us reeeel Ammurrikins.
WMD's were out there too, and pointed right at us. SMH
Why is it that republicans seem to try and defend their positions on social insurance programs but insisting that if someone is poor they must in some way be negligent, criminal or lazy.
I guess if they had to look at the real causes of poverty they might have a more difficult time trying to justify themselves.
Surely you jest. Republicans don't even try to justify themselves. They just spew this filth and garbage and the uninformed and the rich lick it up.
Rick Scott's drug testing scheme is a basic tenet of the Republican agenda: humiliate the poor, at all costs.
Eileen
I agree but what don't understand is to what end...what purpose does it serve
I can't honestly think of one unless it's like the behavior of schoolyard bullies who pick on the weak to make themselves feel strong...
You've hit the nail right on the head. Plus, "I've got mine, you can't have yours."
In Florida it was a company Rick Scott founded, Solantic, that does drug testing. Although Scott divested himself of interest in the company, the controlling share went to a trust in his wife’s name. You might want to look into who is going to profit from this in each state that they are planning to implement this in.
This post fails to mention one very important box this program checked for Gov. Scott. His wife has a major participation in the company responsible for executing the drug tests. I guess she made money regardless of who was paying for the tests.
Oh - Florida's version of Halliburton!
it's like W and no child left behind...the day he signed it his brother Neil sold his education company for $13 million dollars
Oh nepotism!! Thy name is profit!!!
It is Rick Scott's company and his stock, he just put it into his wife's name.
Who owns the drug test manufacturers? That will provide the answer for why this ludicrous push.
See Andy Brinn's post - it's Gov. Scott's wife.
Before they can vote on any legislation that mandates drug testing the legislators themselves should have to be tested. I'll bet they would be more that 2% positive.
I'm not sure I want them tested. What if the test come back negative? At least now we can blame it on drugs.
"... it was part of an intrusive, big-government conservatism he tends to like; it punished and shamed the poor;..."
Sad and pathetic really how the GOTP "decry against BIG GOV'RMINT" while subjecting "others" to their over reaching thirst for power. The GOTP have nothing - no fresh ideas, no plans to get Americans working - nothing except shaming & humiliating those they've deemed as "other". The really sad thing is that they've convinced so many low-information people that they (GOTP) work for their interests!
Vote them all out of public office, they surely are NOT working for the benefit of the 98% of Americans!
shaming & humiliating those they've deemed as "other".
Commonly known as "bigotry".
Wonder how lying and deceiving McCain likes people getting on his case about a fence. McCain went a long and fed those people that load of crap about building a fence, when a fence in the end would never work in the first place. If people want to get into this country there is other ways of doing just that like by sea or air. Now instead of McCain doing the right kind of immigration reform, he never did because he had to suck up to his rich bastard buddies. The only real way to fix people sneaking into our country is actually to monitor the Employers that they are not employing someone who sneaked in for cheap wages. But of course McCain would never do that because he would than go against the rich bastards strategies for cheap wages and screwing over the middle class and poor. We are all immigrants in this country even to the point of Native Americans, considering that we all originated in Africa. So the only real way to fix this immigration problem is to be assured that everybody is paid fair and equal wages as their coworkers, regardless if they are a new immigrant or not. And if an employer hires an illegal immigrant, then they must pay penalties plus the fair and balanced wages to the worker as they should originally have done in the first place and that would definitely settle the problem pretty fast, especially if they are actually monitoring for any illegal activities. Hiring illegal immigrants and new immigrants is just another way for rich bastards to drive down people’s wages and get very cheap labor even to the point of slave labor.
But thats just it
We have the laws, employers do face fines for hiring the 'illegal to work here' employee.
We do not have the personnel to conduct the investigations into the employers, that would be government spending.
And there has been one case in Ventura CA of slave labor
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-15/news/mn-1978_1_ventura-county
There has even been worse cases than that Old Bat, when they enslaved new immigrants from India that were Engineers and some factory workers. They were locked up in the factory and couldn't leave. The Engineers were actually trained and educated people.
It just shows you with these rich bastards, it doesn't matter who they would or could enslave. Whatever way for rich bastards to make huge profits at the very cost of people's lives they will do it just so they can stuff their pockets full of cash. You could be a poor person to a Scientist and rich bastards would enslave you if they could and wouldn't care in the least on how it would affect you or anybody else plus destroy any environmental conditions around them as long as it made them their huge profits.
I'd buy off on these other states trying this stupidity had the lawsuits been won in Florida courts. They weren't. They were won in the federal courts.
Guess these Republicans really are big spenders when it comes to taxpayers' monies when they KNOW they're going to lose a lawsuit.
Gotta spend that cash on private companies that do the tests! Tri-cornered hats with mercury linings fail to see how ridiculus they are being.(ah but they do remember how the original tea party dressed up as indians so they could blame those heathens!)
Give Florida to Cuba! Watch the yankees exit post haste. Ain't no fun getting a tax dodge by living in Florida for a while and claiming it as home if you end up in Cuban jail.
Here's a sample of real fraud, some welfare recipients collect unemployment from New York because they pay more but live in South Carolina where they get better housing and food stamps go further. I imagine Florida has the same thing.
I agree that if we gave Florida to Cuba all the yankees would leave, but where would they go? New York? California? I hate to inflict Rick Scott, Ann Colter and Rush Limbaugh on the rest of America. Just keep them in Florida.
PAUL S. Campbell, They had to of Worked in New York at some time. You have to give a Work History Whether you worked in your Home State or out of State, All WAGES have to be reported. Because when you file a Claim, It is Determined if you are even eligible, to recieve UI Benefit's based on what you worked, And when, it is not just sign up and recieve $$. UI doesn't work that way.
All I know is they come here to live and still collect unemployment or welfare from New York. They drive with New York plates but park in S.C. driveways. I do not know the whole scam I admit.
Well, clearly the people receiving government assistance in Kansas and Indiana are far more likely to be drug addicted degenerates than Floridians. It just stands to reason. Everybody Knows it.
Freedom of Speech Case in Indiana would limit our rights to even criticize this measure.
Freedom of Speech Case in Indiana – The Dan
Brewington Case
On the same side of an issue??? Attorney James Bopp Jr., Eagle Forum, Professor Sheila Kennedy, The Hoosier State Press Association, The Indianapolis Star, UCLA Professor Eugene Volokh, and others, have joined in support on the same amicus brief? The Indiana ACLU also filed a brief in support of the Petition to Transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court on behalf of the Dan Brewington Case. The Petition to Transfer was filed by Michael K. Sutherlin and Sam Adams on February 14, 2013. For a list of all the supporters see http://danbrewington.blogspot.com/2013/02/dan-brewington-receives-impressive-help.html
Sutherlin and Adam’s Petition to Transfer http://www.danbrewington.blogspot.com/2013/02/dan-brewingtons-petition-to-transfer-to.html
Links to Professor Eugene Volokh’s Amicus
Brief, http://www.danbrewington.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-short-recap-of-dan-brewingtons-case.html
Yep - Indiana is corrupt - GO DAN BREWINGTON!
and how much did this cost the tax payer, no one has mentioned this. I for one would like to know
Ref: NYT Article.
nothing has been said about the cost to the tax payer for this. I for on would lke to know. How do I get this information ?
Have to admit it is sort of funny, in a disgusting sort of way, to see the party that cries about the reduction of freedom and liberty and how Government is intruding into our lives being in support of drug testing .... anyone, actually.
As long as someone is sober when doing something that could impact others, such as driving, I don't see what business it is of anyones what someone does "at home".
But I also have to admit, I along with others in the above posts, have wanted the "boss" (politicians, wall street, decision makers, Pres. Shrub, engineers, etc) screened to see just what the hell THEY are on.
I am wondering when all gun purchasers will be required to take a drug test prior to receiving their merchandise?
Nothing helps define the US vs. THEM dynamic like assuming the "other" guy is a drug addict.
Just another example of Conservative thinking, at its best.
Well everyone knows the meth trade has moved to the midwest red states.
Yes, we really need to know how much this fiasco has cost the taxpayers of FL so far. I'm betting it adds up to millions of dollars, money that was funneled to Scott's wife for the testing, money to folks who had to shell out the money for the unnecessary tests, money to the lawyers to handle the court cases. It looks like everyone came out a winner and everyone came out a loser, especially the taxpayer, who saw their money funneled to those at the top of the income ladder, the businesses, the business owners and the lawyers.
Well here's a clear entreprenurial opportunity. Invent a toilet that tests for drugs and sounds an alarm whenever a druggie pees into it. Florida and other red states would buy millions of them.
But I'd be willing to bet none of them would be installed in the state capitol buildings.
And they would all be in jail. From the top down
Yes sirry Bob she got paid and so did Slick Rick, they had their hands all over that request from the beging knowing it would backfire but they'ed make money any way,They can't pass a JOBS Bill to put Americans to work but they can sure get into your life whether you like it or not.
You would be surprised how many judges, atts., police, and gov. officials do drugs. An att. from Va. was telling a friend that just yesterday. I think that if they want to give drug tests to welfare receipents, we should make all those fed. and state officials take truth serum before they can hold office or a set on the bench.
When Scott authorized the drug tests, I believe his wife owned the company that was processing the tests. Hmmm....
I don't know the exact cost, but I do know that the governors net worth has increased over 40% since he's been in office. Now I know why he spent 20 million dollars of his own money to get a job that pays less than 200k. He is going to make his money back plus some. Oh, and he's also rejecting the "Obamacare" part of medicare and putting in his own plan which will benefit his wifes company tramensly as well...Next he's going to start drub testing to receive Social Security. So seniors watch out...
Is there a way to verify if the health centers responsible for the drug testing in Florida were owned by Rick Scott's wife? What is the bottom line on Medicare fraud linked to him? There is a lot of conflicting evidence, but I'm kind of fond of the facts.