Posted on 01/18/2011 3:53:50 PM PST by mandaladon
FRANKFORT — A state lawmaker wants random drug testing of adult Kentuckians who receive food stamps, Medicaid or other state assistance.
Those who fail the test would lose their benefits under House Bill 208, filed by Rep. Lonnie Napier, R-Lancaster.
Napier's proposal has won the backing of powerful House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, but critics say it would stigmatize welfare recipients and possibly harm their innocent children.
"I'm not a hard-hearted guy," said Napier. "I believe there is a need for public assistance for those who need it, but I understand some are using these funds to buy drugs."
Napier said the goal "is to get people off drugs."
"Most employers require it for their workers," he said of drug testing. "We need to do the same for those getting assistance through the state."
Napier said he would alter the bill when the legislature resumes Feb. 1 so it requires the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services to set up mandatory, random testing of the blood or urine of any Kentuckian 18 or older who receives welfare benefits, food stamps or state medical assistance.
There would be exceptions for those who have a prescription for a controlled substance, he said.
Making the testing random would ensure the bill is constitutional, Napier said.
Under the proposal, adults on welfare who test positive for drugs would lose their assistance. They could get it back by passing a drug test at a later date determined by the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...
Like welfare reform in the nineties and immigration reform (the real kind) currently, these things bubble up from the state and local level not from the top down.
Whatever the motivations here, you don’t do people favors by maintaining them in a self-destructive lifestyle. That’s why I don’t give money to the bums.
Not a bad start.
To really “win” or at least fight to a draw, the “War on Poverty” they should make Norplant a prerequisite to getting assistance of ANY kind.
This isn’t suppressing “reproductive rights” — it is just ensuring the responsibilities are commensurate with those liberal-declared “rights.”
Although just about everybody in the country is now on food stamp "cards" which are read just like any credit card at the grocery store, Eastern Kentucky's impoverished rural areas are served primarily by food stores just outside of the modern credit card operations.
As a consequence there are an unusually high percentage of Eastern Kentucky food stamp recipients who get stamps!
That right there makes them show up like a sore thumb on the old "who's using their food stamps to buy dope" statistical reports.
If they could just give those folks bus tickets outta' there, or maybe subsidize the implementation of card reading systems in the stores, that'd change the statistics!
I'm someone of the impression that a card reading system would be cheaper than pee tests for all the down and outters in Eastern Kentucky. Maybe they could get 220 lines in there too to run ovens and heaters!
I don’t have a problem with this, since many employers require the same now of their employees to keep their jobs. These employees taxes pay for the welfare. Sauce for the goose...
OTOH - I’m not a complete fan of drug testing in the workplace unless there is a reason for it i.e., safety or unusual behavior of an employee.
I don’t have a problem with this, since many employers require the same now of their employees to keep their jobs. These employees taxes pay for the welfare. Sauce for the goose...
OTOH - I’m not a complete fan of drug testing in the workplace unless there is a reason for it i.e., safety or unusual behavior of an employee.
Sorry for the double double post post.... ; ~ )
“make Norplant a prerequisite”
What the heck are you even thinking? Or are you an idiot? Maybe you don’t even know you are an idiot.
I KNEW there was a reason I was moving to Kentucky.
But a drug-using parent causes no harm, whatsoever /sarc
But when the TSA pulls people out of line and strip searches them, or looks under their clothes with a machine, that isn’t stigmatizing????
Or when the traumatize little kids in the line at the airport by groping them, that isn’t harmful???
I need duct tape, lots and lots of it....fast.
I also think that anyone who is 25 lbs overweight is automatically ineligible for food stamps. If you are overweight, lack of food is NOT your problem.
And all other lawmakers.
And random forensic analysis of their financial accounts.
Benjamin Franklin agrees with you
"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
What the heck are you even thinking? Or are you an idiot? Maybe you don’t even know you are an idiot.
I hang my head in shame... doin' that Crazy Talk!
Now that is just crazy.
I am behind this 100% I also want to know why we provide breakfast and sometimes dinner to “poor” children in school. Don’t their parent(s) receive food stamps to feed their kids? If their kids are getting breakfast and dinner from school then their food stamp totals need to be reduced.
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