Posted on 01/31/2015 2:18:27 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Scott Walker has had a good week. The press is googly-eyed over him, waxing on about how he could just win this thing, and he's still rolling on his high from last weekend's Freedom Summit. Of course, that's not really something to write home about when you're besting the likes of Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee.
He's got that populist message down pat just like his other friends on the campaign trail. Income inequality! Deteriorating middle class! And he's so concerned about those things he's going to govern on that basis, right?
Walker has a real problem on his hands, because while he's basking in the afterglow, he still has to govern. It turns out he's not doing that awfully well.
Wisconsin’s low-income workers and some members of Congress are speaking out against Governor Scott Walker’s call for making people on public assistance undergo a drug test. Governor Walker confirmed in a Q and A at the conservative American Action Forum in DC on Friday that the 2015 budget he will unveil Tuesday will include measures that cover those who need food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment benefits, among other programs for those in poverty.
Walker claimed his motivation for the controversial move was feedback he’d received from Wisconsin companies. “As I traveled my state, I hear employers, small business owners say, overwhelming: ‘We have jobs. We just need workers. And we need two things: people who know how to show up every day for work, five days a week, and gimme someone who can pass a drug test,’” he said.
Now here's how that plays out with real people who need assistance.
For Wisconsin workers who currently depend on public assistance, like 21-year-old Milwaukee waitress Peyton Smith, the burden of the law would be much more personal.
“For [Governor Walker] to put another barrier in front of us is like saying we’re guilty, but we’re not guilty,” Smith told ThinkProgress. “It’s already hard to go down there and file for government assistance. We have to report in every day, fill out papers. Now I have to take the time out of my busy schedule to take a drug test? Come on!”
Epps-Addison, who depended on food stamps when she began law school at the start of the Great Recession in 2008, echoed Smith’s difficult experience in signing up for public benefits.
“There were times even I couldn’t navigate the process, as a law student with a college degree,” she said. “The system is set up to disempower people and make them frustrated enough to give up before receiving the help they need.”
Smith, who has a three-year-old daughter and another baby due soon, works about 20 hours a week at Denny’s — though she has repeatedly requested full-time employment. Because it’s a tipped job, she makes just $2.33 an hour, and currently relies on food stamps to feed her family.
“I’m willing to work. I’m not lazy at all,” she said. “But the jobs we can get are horrible, low pay, and we can’t get the hours we need. As a parent, it just sucks. I want things that are healthy for her, but the fruits and vegetables she needs to grow as young child are expensive.”
Scott Walker, like the party he represents, is awesome at tossing around the simple solution sound bite. Need workers? Drug test the ones on welfare! Never mind that they're likely not skilled at building furniture or whatever jobs he's talking about. When employers say they need people to show up who can pass a drug test, what they're really saying is that they have some nice minimum wage jobs over here with long hours, shifts, and little in the way of pay and benefits.
And please, never mind about that pesky unconstitutional thing. Scotty will make that go away...somehow.
If you want jobs to return to America, stop taxing the corporations higher than other industrial countries, get rid of Obamacare, get EPA off the backs of small businesses who do not have the manpower to fight them, reduce paper required by small businesses who do not have the manpower, stop restricting business from operating freely interstate (for example I can not buy health insurance from outside of my state), reduce unemployment period from 99 weeks to 12 weeks (the people whose unemployment expires find jobs quickly), give people tax incentive to work instead of collecting welfare and food stamps.
I personally spent time in Singapore observing why they have 40% more jobs than citizens living there. They have zero unemployment compensation and zero food stamps for adults in working age group. They have low corporate taxes and they import foreign workers to do the menial jobs nobody wants on 2 year work permits. No wonder Singapore now has the most concentration of millionaires, every 6th citizen is a millionaire.
Here is the link to the PDF file that is the Drug testing policy for the Milwaukee Police Dept. It covers all of the instances where drug testing is required (even when they are promoted or have been on an extended leave) and also cover random testing. The chief determines the frequency and officers are chosen randomly.
http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/mpdAuthors/SOP/770-DRUGTESTING.pdf
The officer I spoke with on the phone was kind enough to email the link just for you:) A simple thank you will suffice:)
Shoulda, coulda, woulda....But not the case...
You'll find most lower down the food chain are subjected to random testing.
I'd start with everyone in government, from Congress to the local DMVs.
If Bobby and Cindy at HomeDepot are subjected, so should everyone in government, especially those in control or in a position to judge others, in any fashion. This includes those doing the testing.
Dragnet, I just sent you two more links. One is a PDF file about the MPD’s drug testing program including the random testing. I told you I spoke with a MPD officer about this and he sent me the link to the policy. Are you calling me a liar?
I think the police union in Milwaukee overturned it..
But if they do, that’s great because Milwaukee Police Dept has had it’s share of drug scandals.
That PDF was about 20 years old...
Okay, Drug Test the ones that don’t show up with a Paycheck and only receive partial payments for Welfare..
Next excuse...
No, the union did not overturn it. Yes, the policy has been in effect for a long time. It is still the policy today. If you noticed on the right hand side of the document near the top it says:
REVIEWED/APPROVED BY:
Captain Regina Howard
DATE: February 18, 2014
So it was still in effect a year ago.
And now I am done with you. It seems to me that you have a bone to pick with law enforcement that causes you to throw around statements that are not true. I went through the effort of trying to correct and educate you. Sadly some people are just not able to be educated and can’t handle the facts. Good luck to you. Maybe you could call Captain Howard yourself?
The Gov’s got courage, f’sure.
The only ones whom have a reason to gripe...are the ones whose $$ is being plunked down. If you’re feeding from the taxpayer trough (and, as a (L) that’s #1 that should go....no forced ‘charity’. Completely anti-5th and 13th).
And, no, they should be tested FIRST, on THEIR dime. Bring the results when you’re trying to sign-up.
Now, let’s not get into the voting side of things; I have my own growing list of ‘to do’ if I’m ever asked to be King for a day :) But, if anyone should start their a vanity thread on the same....
Well the police union up there sure tried. That's on the Internet too.
I told ya up thread, if it was still in effect that was good.
""I think the police union in Milwaukee overturned it.. But if they do, that’s great because Milwaukee Police Dept has had it’s share of drug scandals.""
So there is no reason for you to get excited and throw out baseless comments like the "bone to pick" comment.
Relax.
The bonds are to be paid by by taxes on players salaries above present levels not by ordinary taxplayers
i think an initial test. If clean maybe one follow up unannounced in the next year. Less expenditure of resources addressing the cost of the program objections and not terribly intrusive. Afterwards testing only done under specific circumstances like an arrest or at the suggestion of a social worker. Also if some social worker ends up with a ow batting average, using the tests for vindictive or petty purposes then they lose their job.
Gosh. Took me more time to type than think this up. Whats so difficult about inserting a little common sense into the law?
Thank you.
Opiates will also show.
but yeah....they arent gonna catch any crack heads.
Hell you can be a crack head and be mayor of DC these days....LMAO!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.