State Sen. Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) is the latest Ohio GOPer to toss a bill into the pile that would drug test welfare recipients in the Buckeye State.
Previous efforts, despite inflammatory rhetoric playing off social and economic stereotypes meant to get a rise out of those conservative-minded voters who feel like social safety nets are a waste of money and all the poor people use the cash to go get high, have thankfully failed. Hell, even John Kasich has said that he’s not interested in the idea.
But that won’t stop Schaffer, who introduces the bill today. Talking to the Columbus Dispatch, the egregiously misguided state senator had this to say:
“It is time that we recognize that many families are trying to survive in drug-induced poverty, and we have an obligation to make sure taxpayer money is not being used to support drug dealers. We can no longer turn a blind eye to this problem.”
Ah, this problem and our blind eyes. Clearly there is something serious here that needs to be addressed.
Except, there’s not.
Florida has tried this before, at a net loss to the state of over $45,000, and only 108 people tested positive. That out of 4,086 tests. 2.9%. A problem indeed. (Most, incidentally, were positive for marijuana.)
Want more evidence the idea is concocted by those ignoring fruitful factual evidence and playing on the lowest fears of a constituency who already believe welfare recipients are drugged-out scumbags?
Try Utah.
“Utah has spent more than $30,000 to screen welfare applicants for drug use since a new law went into effect a year ago, but only 12 people have tested positive, state figures show,” according to the Deseret News.
But sure, let’s run ahead with Schaffer’s plan, which would have three counties test welfare recipients who admit to using drugs within the last six months on a questionnaire (another brilliant facet of the — we’d like to reiterate once again — phenomenally stupid bill).
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.
At first I thot YEAH lets test welfare gloms for stonerage, then I see the low success rate of positive tests in the states doing the testing…
I move on…
let’s do the math. For 1000 people, $50 per test , one test per year = $50,000 spent annually. At 3% failure rates, that’s 30 people who don’t get paid an average of $500 per month or $6,000 per year each. Saving $180,000 of taxpayer money on $50,000 spent. Now multiply that 1000 people times all the people that receive welfare. Seems like a pretty good plan to me. This doesn’t even account for the people who don’t even apply because they know they will fail the test.
What isn’t mentioned is the 2,300 people in Florida who applied for benefits, but did not proceed with the drug test for whatever reason (e.g., knew they would fail)…..quite the deterrent.
If you don’t hold people accountable they will cheat….
Look, I’m all for helping out people that need welfare, but if you’re going to take free assistance from the government, then there need to be some strict rules regarding what you’re allowed to buy with that money. Drugs, alcohol, and bags upon bags of potato chips and candy would be things I would argue don’t need to be purchased with taxpayer money. If there are no restrictions or limitations to a program, then anyone who can apply will apply; whereas if you have restrictions and limitations, only those that truly need it will be willing to put up with those restrictions and limitations.