Texas advances bill to require drug screening for welfare

[August]

Originally Posted by Aramike

Returning to self-sufficiency is what welfare is about - not merely a substitute for a real, earned paycheck.

Fewer junkies sucking up welfare money means more that will be available to the really deserving.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by August

Fewer junkies sucking up welfare money means more that will be available to the really deserving.

Indeed. Along with that is the hope for fewer junkies period.

[Tchocky]

It might be worth pointing out - again - that when research was carried out on this subject the level of drug use for welfare recipients was less than half of that of the regular population.

The way some of you guys are talking you'd think drugs were a mandatory accompaniment to welfare.

They're ok with me. I'm sufficiently armed.

I don't know what America has against work, I completely fail to understand why we not only condone laziness and sloth and hind tit feeding within our populace...

To paraphrase - I don't know what some Americans seem to have against their own countrymen. You would only have a problem with riots if you yourself weren't carrying a gun. Good grief.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

? How many didn't even apply because of it? More than enough to make up that $118k for sure.

Read the article:

(An analysis by the state showed that the drug testing requirement didn’t tamp down applications.)

As for it not being a violation - well, you're wrong. It's irrelevant whether someone is going to apply for welfare voluntarily or not. It's a government service that is provided to someone that's paid for by their tax dollars. The judge who blocked the law found the same:

"In October, a federal judge in Orlando temporarily blocked the state of Florida from conducting drug tests on welfare applicants. U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven wrote in her ruling that drug tests are “well established” as a means of search under the Fourth Amendment and that the state had not demonstrated a substantial need to justify “suspicionless” drug testing. "

The mere act of applying for welfare is not a crime worthy enough of a government search of your person.

[Onkel Neal]

Nothing in this country will ever be fixed or improved, we will always have people fighting against it.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Nothing in this country will ever be fixed or improved, we will always have people fighting against it.

Improving and fixing the welfare system is a great goal. This is not the way to do it, however. It's childish and simplistic thinking that wastes taxpayer dollars.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Nothing in this country will ever be fixed or improved, we will always have people fighting against it.

Never a truer statement. It is the nature of the beast as it were. The people need to change. Was the stigmata of welfare different 60 years ago compared to today?

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Improving and fixing the welfare system is a great goal. This is not the way to do it, however. It's childish and simplistic thinking that wastes taxpayer dollars.

Oh, sure, because we know 99% of welfare recipients would pass the drug test. People who work have to pass drug screening to pay taxes for those who take welfare.

[Tchocky]

97% for marijuana. At least in the Florida study.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Oh, sure, because we know 99% of welfare recipients would pass the drug test. People who work have to pass drug screening to pay taxes for those who take welfare.

A private employer is not the same as the government, though. And at least in Florida it was 97.6 percent of people who passed the test.

This is a classic boondoggle project thats entire premise rests on the perception that all public assistance recipients are a bunch of lazy minorities who spend every day doing drugs.

Apparently when we get down to the dollars and cents of it, that doesn't seem to be the case. The fact that people would defend wasting government money to try and prove this when it's already been disproven is a stupid idea. Of course thinking differently would involve people putting some thought into it and possibly changing their worldview, and that may be too much to ask of those unwilling or incapable of doing so.

[Herr-Berbunch]

10-drug instant result (5 mins) cup test - $6.95. Somebody, once again in government, needs to learn to write contracts/purchase orders - they could've been making a public profit.

[Onkel Neal]

Yes, let's change our worldview and not be stupid, top of my priority list.

And who the hell said anything about "minorities"? Don't throw the race card in this.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Yes, let's change our worldview and not be stupid, top of my priority list.

I try to live by the philosophy of always be learning and always be challenging what you know to be true.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I try to live by the philosophy of always be learning and always be challenging what you know to be true.

I'm pretty sure everybody thinks that way (whether they actually practice it or not...). And thanks for challenging what I know to be true.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

This is a classic boondoggle project thats entire premise rests on the perception that all public assistance recipients are a bunch of lazy minorities who spend every day doing drugs.

Not in my family(wife's side). These folks are white and largely alcoholics. No boondoggle. Just Boones Farm. Enjoy your day.