Drug tests for welfare recipients is a great sound bite issue and that's why lawmakers clamor for it, especially in so called tough times.
Maybe its the libertarian side of me, but there's a slippery slope quality to this. One can make an argument for anyone getting a check or benefit from the government being subject to tests, strip searches, and home searches.
Maybe the people who get corporate welfare could be tested too.
Speaking of NY State largesse for those not on welfare...
Last year's highest paid state employee was the former head basketball coach at SUNY Binghamton who with a separation deal clocked just over a million dollars...a doc at Downstate Medical in Brooklyn got $974,605...pretty good amounts for figuring final year earnings for pension.
The nead of the College of Nanoscale Engineering at SUNY Albany was paid $763K....In all the number of six figure earners has quadrupled in the past decade.
Makes the $300K school superintendents look like paupers. And to run it all, we pay the Governor $170K.....Andy should go coach hoop at a SUNY school.
Drug test the people who have set up this crazy system.
New York legislators: Make people on public assistance undergo drug testing syracuse.com
8 comments:
I am a conservative but this idea is not a good one. I feel the safety net is for everyone including drug abusers.
But I would be in favor of eliminating money from the equation. Turn food stamps and welfare into something purchased with a card that can only purchase certain things. Like bread, water...that sort of thing.
We can also issue ID's with privileges on them that must be shown for purchase of tobacco and lottery.
Of course all that money for tobacco and lottery ends up in the states hands and is a way of giving back, so I am not sure about that one after all.
"corporate welfare" is a fun term to throw around but it is really just the state paying someone to do what the state wants them to do. That is not welfare even if we like to call it that.
There is so much wrong with this sort of thinking.
The drug testing is itself corporate welfare. Scratch a demand for drug testing programs and you will find businesses using the political process to capture "customers".
Irony abounds in a multitude of areas. Ex: For 40 years the public has been told (in relation to abortion) you have no right to tell a woman what to do with her body ... but if she ingests a forbidden substance, well, it's off to the prison industry for her!
We have a President who admits to having used cocaine (& 3 consecutive rumored to have done so). There was a time when these 3would not have even have been allowed to be enlisted men let alone ever have anything to do with nuclear weapons.
If you have a problem with welfare, then end welfare. Don't use welfare to attack the Rights of Man.
Ask at whos expense.. Mine and yours I assume... Is this to refuse them assistance.. What about the addict who get counciling when working for the state.. At my and your expense again... Get a real life..
Reciepants now have to enter a work program I am told. In order to work they have to undergo these tests.... What the hell is going on. Somone is just talking through their ass.
One thine I do believe in is that anyo e selling drugs and found guilty plea or not looses their welfare and is oprosecuted for fraud. Anyo e found guilty of fraud goes to jail no plea...
Anon 12:02, I agree with 100%, if caught selling drugs while on public assistance they loose it. Using state money to buy and sell drugs, not right and should be charged with fraud.
9:53 I think you have it wrong. We shouldn't cut people off services if or when they test positive for illegal drug usage. What we should do is enforce enrollment in a treatment program. As things stand now, people on assistance just continue to stay drunk and stoned, receive aid, and never address the underlying issue. Use the tests as a hammer to ensure they stay with their treatment programs. Right now the leverage only applies to those on probation or parole. It should apply to everyone. If you are getting a check, you should be clean, or should be in a program to address the issue.
have you sen the figures? something like 50% of the populace receives some type of gov't assiatnce.
Does everyone get tested? From the baby getting SS survivor to the 94 year old retiree?
Everyone has brought up legitimate concerns about personal freedoms, with which I agree. However, doesn't anybody have any concrens about lifetime welfare critters buying boze, cigarettes and drugs with our hard earned money, while we all struggle to take care of our families and pay our bills? All this "free stuff" is costingf all of us millions of dollars a year that should be going to our own families and it is obvious that it has to come to and end soon. Banning druggies from welfare benits forever would certainly be a good start in the right direction.
Yup, if you're receiving benefits, you are being periodically screened for using illegal drugs. If you fail the tests, you should be mandated into a treatment program and expected to attend. If you don't, you will be sanctioned from receiving benefits. We can no longer allow drunks, junkies and addicts to sit home and get paid to do drugs while never addressing the underlying condition. Its pretty much common sense, but the Donkey politicians fight the proposal back every year. Surprise surprise. The drunk, drugged criminal vote is a large part of their constituency.
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