Posted on 03/05/2013 3:31:10 PM PST by ksen
Washington, D.C. – Friday, U.S. Representative Stephen Fincher (R-Frog Jump) introduced the Welfare Integrity Act of 2013, requiring random drug testing for illegal substances for welfare applicants and recipients.
The bill requires each state participating in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to certify that applicants and current recipients are being randomly test for illegal drug use. In order to pass constitutional muster, the bill requires states to provide a consent and waiver form, where applicants are given the choice to waive their Fourth Amendment Rights and submit to a random drug test. If welfare beneficiaries fail a drug test or are arrested on a drug related offense, they will be unable to receive the benefit and cannot reapply for one year. Further, the legislation requires states that receive funding from the TANF program to certify that there is a program in place to test 20% of applicants and recipients for illegal drugs. States that do not comply would forfeit 10% of their TANF funding.
“Currently the federal government enables drug abusers a safety-net by allowing them to participate in the TANF program. Instead of having to make the hard-choice between drugs and other essential needs, abusers are able to rely on their monthly check to help them pay their bills.
“If Washington wants to help families move toward economic stability, we must do our very best to end the cycle of drug abuse. By allowing random drug checks, we can ensure families who receive TANF benefits use them for their intended purpose of feeding, clothing and providing shelter for their children, while cutting the tie that enables drug abuse. It’s not unreasonable to ask folks to stay clean in order to receive federal assistance.”
this is going nowhere - Obama would veto it if it even passed the house and senate. obama will not alienate his base, drug addicts, welfare recipients, frauds and cheats
Uhmmm, this isn’t just about subverting a persons 4th it also impairs their 5th and the right to not self incrimnate.
Once it established as precedent it can be used against those who receive college loans, as they are government subsidies and anyone covered by ObamaCare®.
In fact, it could be argued that everyone travels the highway or goods they receive are federally subsidized as travel is on federally subsidized roads.
I congratulate Congressman Fincher, for being the first to step forward, and embrace the idea that those on government assistance MUST accept the ‘nanny concept’, i.e., while suckling at the government teat, nanny government has complete control of your life!
I define ‘the government teat’, as welfare programs, unemployment assistance, food stamp programs, government-supplied communication programs, and NOT Social Security and Veterans’ Disability payments.
However, all of us who do NOT, should be left the hell alone!
Governor Scott of Florida tried implementing this and I’m sure it had nothing to do with his “former” company, his wife still had control of it, benefiting from performing the drug tests.
There are certainly people who abuse human kindness. But don’t look at all low income people as criminals and drug abusers. Most of them are just like us. There are congresscritters who are corrupt and steal from the public but you don’t propose testing yourselves to make sure you aren’t on the take. When you set the same rules for yourselves that you demand of others, then then let’s talk.
I notice you left out all the programs through which big corps receive billions in Fed $$$'s.
So it's fair to say you approve of big government drug-testing for all those receiving money from programs you disagree with?
The FL legislature passed the bill, Scott signed it, and a federal court shot it down.
“Welfare Integrity”
What an Oxymoron.
“Uhmmm, this isn’t just about subverting a persons 4th it also impairs their 5th and the right to not self incriminate.”
I don’t think it’s too much to ask for folks that are getting welfare not spend it on drugs. If they got a job and supported themselves, in most cases they would also have the same random screening.
Ksen is a liberal troll who will only waste your time continuously defeating his lame questions. Zot bait anyone?
I was all for this until my mom got caught in the trap. Now I see how they play their little game.
She’s disabled, but turns 63 and everything changes this year for retirement. She has to switch from Medicaid to Medicare.
She was given an EBT card, due to her disability (for the purpose of buying food) that she refuses to use. She figured that she can get by with barter and helping working family members garden and can their food in exchange for part of the harvest. (She can sit and peel and still has good old fashioned knowledge that most lack).
For more than a year, she’s refused to use the EBT card and has tried to get them to take it back.
THEY REFUSE. They just keep loading more money onto it every month and she keeps yelling at them to KEEP THE MONEY.
She made a deal with her social worker a year ago. If she doesn’t touch it once over a one year period, they’ll cancel it.
So it’s been a year. She just went in to get her evaluation and found out that they’re switching her from Medicaid to Medicare because of her age.
The catch?
She needs to purchase a Medicare supplement for $100 a month for her prescriptions.
But she’s not to worry! They’ll reimburse her that much via her EBT card every month!
The woman was actually smug that she found a way to keep my mom on EBT.
Here I am, a hard-nose conservative that’s been saying for YEARS that we need to crack down on welfare abusers and advocating for this very system. Now my MOM (a sweet little old Christian lady who is a COMPLETE tee-teetotaler) is going to be treated like a criminal and made to pee in a cup because the government is doing their BEST to trap people into this system.
You just wait. Soon it’ll be SSI recipients and people who get VA benefits who have to pee in that same cup.
I’m becoming more and more Libertarian as the days go by. This is about noting more than GOVERNMENT CONTROL. In the end, they’re going to try to trap us all - one way or another.
These are the same people who’re trying to keep us from keeping our own gardens.
That’s the law of unintended consequences.
On e they get their mitts in yuh, they morph into a boa constrictor and if they don’t take over your life, they squeeze it out of you.
When he jumps outta that warm water I MIGHT listen to him.
And more unintended consequences when Florida tested this:
Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. About 40 people scheduled tests but canceled them, according to the Department of Children and Families, which oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as the TANF program.
The numbers, confirming previous estimates, show that taxpayers spent $118,140 to reimburse people for drug test costs, at an average of $35 per screening.
The state’s net loss? $45,780.
Good, then you also support drug testing Congressmen and people like Jamie Dimon?
I can understand why you'd see demanding a bit of consistency from conservative members of congress as "liberal trolling" and asking for a zot instead of addressing the issue.
But here's another example of conservatives backing big government.
“Good, then you also support drug testing Congressmen and people like Jamie Dimon?”
Yes I do...
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